


Tethered Communication

by SinisterAmix



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Drabblish Writing, Eventual Plot, Fluff, Glorified! Lance, Humor, Jedi! Keith, M/M, Pining! Keith, References to Tumblr Klance Shitposts, Slow Build, Sniper! Lance, Strong Language, What is Pacing, after episode 11
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-08 10:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7754737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinisterAmix/pseuds/SinisterAmix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Whatever you do, stay away! Okay? I know you’re Keith and all like, ‘I’m an amazing fucking pilot, but man do I sure wanna deprive the universe of my awesome, useful skills; watch me as I nosedive into the heart of the enemy like a psycho because my mullet is proof that I do what I want,’ but don’t listen to that part of you right now. Right now, you’re Survival!Keith. Understand?”</p><p>“I don’t sound like that at all.”</p><p>“Debatable.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Seizure Warning

               Keith trailed behind Shiro absentmindedly, slightly overwhelmed by the endless chatter of infinite languages surrounding them. He was tense, but he couldn’t help it. With so much of the unknown in every direction, he distrusted practically everything that moved within five meters of his current party. Hunk, Pidge, Coran and Lance had already broken off to browse whatever random booth that managed to pique their interests. It was like they were walking down an outdoor market with vendors selling products Keith would only imagine if he were high, which he’d never been so that was only speculation. Perhaps he was being a bit uptight, but really—being sucked into a wormhole and displaced five hundred light years away from the only familiar thing within the next six solar systems did that to a man.

               It’d been about a month since they all finally found each other again, and Keith had honestly been more relieved than he thought probable to have his new family (because let's face it—that’s what it was) back together. They’d nearly lost Shiro then. He and Keith had crash landed together on a dead planet, and their leader had been in pretty bad shape. The red pilot still remembered how the man had looked at him and said that should anything happen to him, he wanted Keith to lead the paladins. That alone had been the boy’s motivation to get them both out of there in one piece. It was a miracle Allura and Coran had even found them. Hunk and Lance were found traveling together, attempting to navigate their way back to the castle. Pidge had been the hardest to locate, having ended up within an asteroid belt routinely patrolled by the Empire. She’d utilized the time she'd had trapped within their perimeter to spy as much as she could on the Galra and study their tech. Keith had to maneuver through the belt three times before she spotted him from within her cloaked Lion.

               Now the team had landed on one of the few space travel hubs outside of Galra’s control called Keltharsidd. Allura claimed it was the largest and friendliest station this side of the Draionin Nebula (whatever that was), and it was the best place to pick up provisions and track down intel. So of course, too serious to try and enjoy the wonders of an alien metropolis like the rest, Shiro and Keith tailed the Altean Princess like a pair of ducklings. She stopped at one booth briefly, then entered a neighboring building that appeared to be a bar, speaking languages that utilized sounds impossible to imitate with the human mouth. Keith decided to remain outside to keep an eye out, allowing his paranoia to steer his movements.

               Scanning the market, he found Hunk first. He noticed Pidge hunched over to the yellow paladin’s left, probably squinting skeptically at whatever alien concoction was being sold by that vendor. Hunk, on the other hand, was practically shaking with excitement, it seemed. Coran appeared out of nowhere while he’d been watching the pair, patting the raven’s shoulder on his way inside the building after Shiro and Allura. His gaze followed the Altean to see their Princess engrossed in a rather serious looking conversation with a large yellow-green alien with bulging purple eyes. Keith’s observation was cut short however when his mind finally wandered to the last of their squad. Where was that idiot? He’d never let him live it down if he’d gotten lost within thirty minutes of their arrival.

               He looked up and down the road several times, trying but failing to locate the blue pilot uniform in the midst of hundreds of extraterrestrials. On the fifth time, he pushed himself off the wall he’d been leaning on and stood straighter, beginning to feel worried. Then he found him. Fortunately, Lance was tall enough to catch sight of over much of the crowd, and Keith noticed the shine of his helmet when it turned the corner into view from wherever the hell he’d run off to. Keith briefly wondered why he was wearing it; the station had breathable air for humans, so none of the others were wearing their helmets.

               Lance was grinning about something, Keith noticed. Or… _at_ something. Someone. Keith crossed his arms and fell back against the wall with a metallic plop.

               Typical.

               The paladin was escorting a short, pretty blue alien by the arm through the crowd toward the rest of the team. Somehow, and Keith still had yet to understand, Lance had figured out how to make his teeth sparkle on command, and boy was he abusing that ability at this moment. Keith could see those pearly whites shining from here.

               “You’ll get wrinkles on your forehead if you keep scowling like that.”

               “I’m not scowling,” Keith answered mechanically before it even registered that Pidge was standing next to him, following his gaze. She sighed. “Does he ever stop to think that maybe the next female alien he hits on might be one step above him in the food chain? What are we going to do if that moron gets eaten? I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these space races had something akin to a mantis mating ritual.”

               That made Keith smile a little. His eyes hadn’t left the couple since quickly acknowledging Pidge’s presence, and he continued to watch as both Lance and the alien girl looked down at something hidden by the rest of the crowd. Then they looked at each other. Lance smiled, shrugged and nodded in response to something she said. After a moment, he planted something behind her left ear that looked suspiciously like a flower, causing the pair of them to laugh before she stood on her toes(?) and pecked him on the cheek.

               “You’re scowling again.”

               Keith’s glare fell to see Pidge was scrutinizing him harder than what was comfortable. He looked away defensively. “Don’t you have alien tech to gawk at?”

               She shrugged. “I’m trying to stay away from it so I’m not tempted to steal anything. The exchange rate here doesn’t even know Earth currency exists, which makes sense.”

               “I’m sure Coran would be happy to lend you some space money,” the raven answered shortly. Before the other could reply, Hunk materialized and cut into their conversation from the side. “Ooh! Do you think he’ll lend me some for groceries? I’m dying to try this Clorag stuff that lobster dude is selling over there. It smells like cinnamon, shortbread and shellfish, though that last part might just be the lobster dude himself. I’m not entirely sure.”

               “Is _that_ what it was called?” asked Pidge.

               “Not sure about that either, but I did my best using context clues,” said Hunk. The blonde made a face at that. “ _What_ context clues? All he kept saying was ‘Frito eg clorag wobl vorp.’”

               “I said I did my best.”

               “Guys! Guys! Guys!”

               And last but not least, Lance skid to a stop between Pidge and Hunk, looking as excited as ever. He made to point his thumb over his shoulder, but Keith cut him off before he could start, “What? Going to brag about your new blue girlfriend?”

               It came out a little more aggressively than he had intended. He had only meant to poke a bit of fun. Luckily, Lance brushed it off without a double-take. “Nah, she let me down gently. Fun fact: did you know Seidronites, which is what she was, walk on four legs until they shed their front two to have arms grow in their place? I thought her brother was a pet until he started talking. Freaked me out. Anyway, there’s this crazy neon park around that corner down there where the colors of the trees change dependent on the sound waves that hit them. You guys should come check it out! It’s like some shit straight out of Avatar!” he rambled at the pace he spoke at when he was normally excited.

               Keith tilted his head. “Straight out of what?”

               Hunk shook his own. “Sorry, man. I gotta make Coran buy me this food before we leave. Who knows when we’ll stumble upon another alien farmer’s market as large and extravagant as this one, you know?” Pidge joined him. “Yeah, I kind of wanna see if he’ll buy me something too. It sounds really cool but I don’t know how much longer we’ll be here and I gotta think about my priorities.” That left Lance to look at Keith hopefully, which he couldn’t deny made him a little happy.

               Keith tried to feign disinterest and answered him with a shrug before Lance even said anything. “Why not? I don’t have anything better to do.” This prompted the darker boy to grin instantly. “’Course you don’t! C’mon! Before Allura tracks us down and makes us do things for the good of the universe.”

               Without warning, he grabbed Keith’s wrist and was soon dragging him through a plethora of aliens of every possible color and size. He was weaving so sharply, Keith had trouble keeping himself from slamming into someone and accidentally triggering some weird intergalactic incident. He had his agility to thank when they finally turned the corner Lance had appeared from earlier and the crowd had thinned enough to see said park a ways away on the horizon. Lance didn’t slow down at all despite the poor boy’s barely coherent protests until he’d pulled Keith right up to the entrance. Was this park really that exciting? Lance appeared to want nothing more than to answer the question left unasked.

               “Check it out. Check it out,” he said while prancing to the nearest tree, which Keith noted was fully pink and looked like it was made of rubber crystal. Already, a couple that was strolling nearby was shooting them weird looks. Lance either ignored them or didn’t notice when he removed his helmet, leaned down and whispered something into the… bark? Was that what that was? Well, whatever it was called, green rings grew and flashed on the surface where Lance had spoken into, pulsing for a bit before slowly fading out and leaving a pale green imprint where they’d been. Keith quirked an eyebrow while Lance grinned up at him.

               “Isn’t that dope?!” His question caused the tree to pulse some more all over even though he had faced away, but the light was less vivid. To Keith, it was neat, sure (because what the fuck did “dope” mean?), but he wasn’t quite convinced it was cool enough to get Lance as excited as he evidently was. For the second time that day, Keith shrugged hesitantly. “I guess…?”

               Lance’s bottom lip jut out in disapproval, then he approached the other much more quickly than the raven was used to, grabbing his wrist again. “You gotta try it yourself, my man,” he ordered fervently. He pulled Keith further into the park until they were off the road and well hidden within a tight clearing of various trees. He placed Keith in the center and even adjusted his posture for him so that he was standing straighter. It made Keith feel a bit like a child. Lance was shepherding him like it was the most normal thing in the world—like he had done this a million times already.

               Then the blue pilot stepped back to watch Keith expectantly, which kind of put him on the spot. The brunet spoke just above a whisper behind a cupped hand, “Alright dude. You got a lot of pent up rage, yeah?”

               “I do not!” Keith whispered angrily back without intending to. Lance only smiled again, which was infuriating. His hands rose and fell in a motion that implied his fellow paladin needed to calm down. “I rest my case, but that’s okay. This is what we’re here for. This is the perfect place to yell and shout and let it all out,” he said encouragingly. “Because this place turns your anger into art.”

               And Keith was shouting before he realized it. “I don’t need to ‘let it all out’!”

               He was nearly blinded by the bursts of neon that rippled like starving flames up to the topmost tips of the foliage encircling them. He shielded his eyes with his hand as best he could. Somewhere to his front, Lance was laughing obnoxiously like the bastard he was. “Your rage is a masterpiece!” he commented between chuckles. “You’re an ass!” Keith shouted back only to immediately regret it when the trees pulsed brighter.

               But despite himself, he was grinning too. Because even though he couldn’t see, he couldn’t deny how beautiful it all was.

               How beautiful _he_ was.

               Okay so. Perhaps the fact that he scowled when he watched Lance laugh with someone else, or the fact that he felt “just a bit” happy when Lance’s attention fell on him wasn’t so strange as Keith liked to believe. But he wasn't entirely ready to admit just how much in denial he was. It just wasn't something he could comprehend, probably because it was something he'd never dealt with before.

               He had no idea when it'd started. There were bits and pieces that fit, but what had exactly happened between them to change how he viewed his teammate completely escaped him. He just knew that there was no other way to rationalize the way he had felt that night Sendak infiltrated the castle and Lance barely survived that bomb. There was no way to explain the uncomfortable jolt in his chest when Lance had claimed they made a good team, or the intolerable impatience that had worsened his mood and caused him to pace in his room for hours while the healing pod cured the pilot much more slowly than Keith was willing to wait for. And after all those analyses, internal debates and bouts of emotional turmoil, not to mention just how many times he had sketched the blue pilot in a sketchbook he kept private, Keith had finally understood. Somewhere along the line of Lance's idiotic jokes and ridiculous antics, Keith had developed his very first crush.

               Of course, having (kind of) accepted that, for a moment Keith had to briefly wonder just what team he played for, but that came up fruitless. The fact of the matter was: he'd never even given that kind of thing a thought before this guy came along. Never was there a boy or girl that had made him feel this way. So the conclusion was simple: Keith liked Lance because he was... Lance—charming, obnoxious, flirty, smarter-than-you’d-think, _painfully **straight**_ _Lance_. He wanted to strangle himself.

               “…eith.”

               He blinked.

               “Keith!”

               He jumped. Lance was waving a hand in front of his face, expression twisted in concern. The raven blinked a few more times, trying to adjust his eyesight to the gently fading spectrum behind his teammate and focus on said teammate at the same time. The blue paladin’s hand fell to Keith’s shoulder when he asked, “You alright, man? Did you finally go braindead? I mean, not to say you weren’t already, but you’re being weirder than usual. You’ve been staring at me for at least five minutes now. I know I’m good looking, but leave some Lance for the rest of the galaxy.”

               Once everything finally became clear, Keith felt his face heat up at that last jibe. He wished his helmet were on to cover it, but it remained at his side, so he turned away and faked a cough behind his hand. He couldn’t even think of a proper retort. “Sorry. I spaced out for a second there,” he said, then watched as Lance’s expression escalated from concerned to panicked.

               “Uh oh. You’re not epileptic, are you? Was that a seizure? One of those weird ones where you don’t actually, well, seize? I’m so sorry, dude! I didn’t know! Shield your eyes! Protect your retinas! Don’t look at the lights!”

               “Wha—aGH!” Keith almost toppled forward at the sudden weight around his shoulders. In a single second, Lance had wrapped his arms around him, clutching the teen’s head into his armored bosom in a vain attempt to shield his eyes from the light show they themselves were causing. Naturally, having his personal space all but destroyed by the one person he couldn’t handle resulted in Keith’s face burning much hotter than previously.

               “Lance!” he managed to yell while grasping at the firm hold said boy had trapped him in. “I’m not epileptic!”

               “Are you sure?! Are you doubly sure?! I don’t need another incident!”

               After some struggling, he pried himself out of the other’s seemingly vise grip, only to take one more look at the trees and instantly regret it. He retched. “I think I’m gonna be sick,” he muttered. Before he knew it, Lance had grabbed his wrist a third time and proceeded to lead him back out of the park while whispering over his shoulder so as not to disturb the trees again, “Don’t worry, buddy. I got you.”

               The raven let himself be led away without resistance. Had Lance always been this considerate? He’d always been grabby with very little regard for personal space, Keith mused. He supposed once their rivalry had somewhat subsided and they became more like actual friends—kinda, Lance had started to show this side of him to Keith little by little.

               And little by little Keith knew how to deal with him less and less. It was terrifying that he felt like he was spiraling into an orbit he had never intended to gravitate towards.

               Once they were safely out of the park (from Hell, Keith decided), Lance found him a bench to sit on and ease his nausea. He recollected himself while the brunet’s eyes remained on the chrome-changing trees. After a moment, Keith watched him sigh wistfully to himself, “Sam and Audrey would’ve loved to see these.”

               The red paladin paused, trying to decipher what Lance was saying. They were quiet for maybe a minute until it hit him all at once: why Lance had been so excited to show him the park; why he’d been leading Keith around like he was a five year-old. Sam and Audrey must’ve been his siblings (or something similar; Keith couldn't be sure exactly), and he probably missed them immensely. He remembered Coran mentioning something about Lance being homesick once in passing. Unfortunately, that was something the raven found too difficult to sympathize with.

               “You think we’ll see Earth again someday?”

               Keith shouldn’t have been as surprised by that question as he was. He hesitated in his answer, clearly thrown off guard. “I…” he started, biting his lip. “I don’t know.”

               Lance snorted, chin dropping to his chest while he hung his head with a chuckle. His teammate scrambled to correct himself only to fail, “I-I mean…! Well…”

               The brunet turned back to him and smiled softly. Keith’s mouth shut with a snap. “Hey, thanks for being honest. Sometimes I need to hear the truth, y’know?” he said.

               “ _Keith. Lance._ ” Shiro’s voice buzzed faintly in their helmets, prompting the both of them to slip them back on. Keith reached up to press the button that opened his response feed, but Lance beat him to the punch. “We leavin’?” he asked.

               “ _Yeah. Allura says she’s all done and we’re ready to layout our next mission. Meet us back at the castle._ ”

               “Roger,” said Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Currently Klance Trash like the rest of you motherfuckers. I'mma say this now: If you want me to pay tribute to a Klance Shitpost, let me know in a comment.
> 
> I have a good bit of this written already, so I will attempt to update every weekend.
> 
> It seriously peeves me that I cannot indent my paragraphs. (Edit: Nvm, I figured it out)


	2. Eureka!

               “So, did Altea ever have like… video games?” came the question born from another lazy afternoon in space. Hunk’s inquiry prompted all resident Earthlings to look at Allura and Coran curiously. Lance followed up with, “I’ve been wondering the same thing for weeks now.”

                Keith himself had only ever in his life played one video game, and that was because one of his squad mates from the Garrison had some sort of handheld console that he’d forced Keith to try out one day. Needless to say, with no experience whatsoever, Keith had been embarrassingly bad at it.

                Allura and Coran scanned their current audience quizzically, exchanging looks. They both raised their eyebrows in unison. “What?”

                “For example: a make-believe scenario produced by a computer that projects a digital avatar representational of the person manipulating it using a control panel—kind of like a simulation,” Pidge elaborated. “Except it’s not really intended for training, but for recreation.”

                “Is training not recreation?” Allura asked honestly.

                Keith seconded that query.

                Coran thoughtfully stroked his mustache. “If it wasn’t intended for training, I don’t believe I recall anything quite like what you’re describing.”

                “Neither can I,” added the Princess. “Much of our planet’s recreation depended on the outdoors. Our technology was strictly meant for military procedure, learning, and structural convenience.”

                “Oh,” said Hunk into the collective silence that followed. Lance shook his head in disbelief. “You’re telling me you’ve never wondered what it’d be like to shoot an RPG at a street full of zombies? What it’d be like to manipulate your surroundings because your hand can conduct electricity? To be able to eat ghosts after you’ve eaten cherries?!”

                “What’s a “zombie”?” asked Coran, predictably.

                “Does your hand not already conduct electricity?” Allura inquired with a look of confusion.

                “How does eating a cherry allow you to eat a ghost?” Keith jumped in because why not.

                Lance gaped at him. “I’m appalled at you, Keith.”

                Shiro chose that point to step in and mediate, as he was wont to do. “Calm down with the references, Lance. They’re not from Earth, remember?”

                The blue paladin pointed at his teammate in accusation. “ ** _Objection!_** Ladies and gentlemen, Keith is very much from planet Earth. There’s no excuse for him not to get a reference to Pacman when he hears it.”

                “To what.” Keith was lost.

                “Sustained,” Hunk grunted.

                “ ** _Hold it!_** ” Pidge interrupted, hand raised. “There is no evidence to support your claim that Keith would be exposed to Pacman at any point in his life given the circumstances he might’ve grown up in.”

                “To what.” Keith was so, so lost.

                “The prosecutor presents his evidence to the jury: it’s _Pacman_ ,” Lance proceeded to enunciate. He looked all too pleased with himself when he shouted, “ ** _Take that!_** ”

                “Your Honor, may the jury be instructed to disregard that statement?” Pidge countered.

                “Members of the jury, you are instructed to disregard that last statement,” Hunk gestured to nothing, giving a nod and stroking his chin and Keith couldn’t help but feel like something was just decided. Who even was the jury? “What is happening…?” he tried, but to his misfortune (and he supposed Allura’s and Coran’s too because certainly they were just as lost as he was), Shiro was busy trying hard to stifle his laughter.

                Pidge actually closed her laptop and put it off to the side. “Please allow me to appeal to the jury, Your Honor.”

                “Proceed,” Hunk said with another nod.

                “Thank you.” Pidge tactfully pushed her glasses higher upon the bridge of her nose. “Although there is no denying the influence of Pacman across the past few generations, one could argue that the arcade game has become something more of a relic only referenced in passing rather than actively shared.”

                Lance gasped. “You take that back!” His finger hung accusingly in the air, feigned professionalism now gone.

                “Accept the truth, Lance!” the other answered with a sly grin.

                “I’m… I’m finding you in contempt of court!”

                “Only the judge can do that!”

                “Hunk!” The yellow paladin jumped as Lance pinned him with a fire in his eyes. “Find her in contempt!”

                “I’ll allow it.”

                “Hunk!” Pidge looked utterly betrayed. Hunk shrugged helplessly as Lance laughed in triumph. “Seeing now that the defendant no longer has an attorney—”

                “ ** _Not so fast!_** I was found in contempt. That doesn’t mean I’ve been removed!”

                “Hunk! Remove her!”

                “ _ **Objection!**_ ” the green paladin interrupted.

                “ _ **Objection!**_ ” Lance also interrupted for whatever reason.

                “Overruled!” Shiro suddenly broke in (Keith hoped). “At this time, the defense rests.”

                Lance, Hunk and Pidge gave a collective whine. “But it was just getting fun!” the blonde protested. Shiro ruffled her hair in apology. “Maybe later. The three of you are overwhelming the three of _them_ with something they’re not in the loop for. Don’t you agree that’s unfair?”

                Lance huffed, slouching further into the couch he was lounging on. “Leave it to Space Dad to present an argument we can’t stand against… But seriously.” He angled his gaze back at Coran and Allura. “You guys really don’t know what you’re missing.” He snapped his fingers as if it were someone’s queue. “Pidge?”

                “On it.”

                To Keith’s legitimate surprise, Pidge snatched her laptop up again, flipped it back open, and began to click around furiously, without so much as a glare for being prompted so arrogantly. Had they all become so close already? How long had it been since they’d been practically kidnapped by the Blue Lion? Keith honestly couldn’t say.

                Within minutes, everyone had crowded around Pidge and her computer. Keith had somehow found himself peeking over Shiro’s shoulder to get a good look at what was going on himself. Pidge had opened some kind of simulation where you were made to believe you were holding a weapon in the bottom right hand corner, as you would in real life if you were right handed, Keith guessed. After only ever having played that handheld, he was curious as to why this one looked so different and… immersive. Pidge pulled a controller out of her backpack and hooked it up to play. All the while, Allura and Coran’s questions were immediate and many.

                “Are you controlling a drone?”

                “Where are you?”

                “What is this place?”

                “Is this an enemy base?”

                “What is that machinery over there?”

                “How did you just pick that up? You didn’t even look at it. What was it?”

                An enemy appeared on screen, and almost out of instinct, Keith tensed. Then the gun at the bottom of the screen was shooting and Keith’s hand had unconsciously found his Bayard. He felt something gently touch his forearm and looked up to see Shiro smiling at him in amusement and reassurance. He seemed to understand.

                Allura and Coran, on the other hand, were practically shouting.

                “Look out, Pidge!”

                “Is it a foe?!”

                “On the ledge! There’s another!”

                “Oh! You were just hit! Are you okay, Number 5? Are you hurt?!”

                Shiro laughed, “Haha, she’s fine, Coran. She’s not in any actual danger.”

                In a few minutes, Pidge had reached a sort of safe zone. She took that as an opportunity to hand the controller off to Allura. “Here. Why don’t you give it a shot?”

                “O-Oh I couldn’t possibly—“

                “Go ahead, Princess. You’ll do great!” Shiro encouraged.

                “Kick some ass!” Lance added.

                She paused, looking around the room as everyone (except Keith, who was still slightly bewildered by the whole thing) smiled back at her, then she nodded. “Alright!”

                Once Pidge passed her the controller, Lance moved to point out exactly what each button did. He did so whilst laying a hand on her shoulder and it made Keith’s insides flare, but it stopped once he realized Lance’s actions were in no way flirtatious, just painfully friendly—almost older brother-like. The fact that Allura looked like she was being taught how to ride a bike for the first time only made it that much more vivid. Keith had watched Lance long enough to notice how his demeanor changed when he was actually teaching someone, and with his realization from that day at the park, it was all steadily coming together.

                Lance was very patient when he taught. He gave a lot of positive feedback and teased just enough to lighten the atmosphere. He always smiled, and his eyes shone so bright, Keith thought he might’ve seen stars reflected in them.

                Which wasn’t fair at all, by the way.

                In seconds, Allura was whooping and hollering and button-smashing, with the whole team backing her up. Keith tried to ignore how much his ears burned while subconsciously wishing he had been in Allura’s place instead.

 

* * *

 

               Keith brushed the shavings from the page after setting his eraser down. Picking back up his pencil, he redrew the line from the tip of the blade, back to the hilt before sighing in satisfaction at a pretty accurate depiction of his Bayard. It’d been pretty hard to draw considering his Bayard didn’t remain in active form for long if Keith wasn’t gripping it by the handle. He had to keep gripping it and releasing it to get any of the details on the drawing right, but it was worth it.

                He flipped through his book to glance at everything he’d ever drawn and kept himself from the back where he knew were an embarrassingly great many pictures of Lance. Perhaps _too_ many. He tried not to think about it. So to distract himself, he decided it was time to train.

                He placed his book inside the drawer of his nightstand, grabbed his Bayard, and on his way out the door, decided it was better if he left his jacket hanging where it was. The castle corridors were many and resembled a maze, and even at this point, Keith had a bit of trouble navigating through them. But the one route he knew well was from his bedroom to the training deck.

                So there was no excuse as to why he somehow ended up in front of Lance’s bedroom door.

                Keith stared begrudgingly at the metal in front of him for a long time. Faking the excuse was easy: he wanted a training partner and Lance was the first one to come to mind. The execution was hard. When leaving their bedrooms, these doors slid open automatically in case there was an emergency that required rushing, but from the outside, there was a pad they had to press, probably to cater to privacy. Keith raised his fist very slowly, as if Lance’s room would explode if he knocked too fast or too hard. He counted to three in his head, trying to calm the dozens of insane hypotheticals that could result if he knocked wrong.

                On three he wound up pounding on the door like he was furious about something. They didn’t make silk this smooth.

                “Oh, is he not answering?”

                Luckily, Keith was collected enough to _not_ jump ten yards sideways like a cat in fright, but that didn’t curb the bristling. Hunk approached from the right, smiling and waving. It seemed like he’d just arrived so Keith inwardly sighed in relief that he probably didn’t get to see the red pilot hovering outside their teammate’s door like a creeper.

                “Uh.” Keith articulated his responses quite well, he thought.

                “Sounds like you’ve been pounding on his door for a while. You probably don’t come get him much, but with Lance, he leaves his door unlocked so you can just walk in. When he’s alone or sleeping, he likes to have headphones on,” Hunk explained further, circling Keith and touching the pad for the door to open. Keith hesitantly followed him in, mind frantic with thoughts of why just walking in produced a thousand more worse case scenarios than knocking wrong.

                “Yo, Lance!” Hunk called. Said boy was sitting with his feet up at the desk, facing away from them with, as predicted by Hunk, green headphones on. He didn’t turn nor give any indication that he’d been made aware of their entry. Just how loudly did he listen to his music? Keith made a mental note to lecture him about the threat of tinnitus later.

                “Oh, he’s reading,” Hunk muttered after craning his neck a bit to peek over Lance’s shoulder from where he was. Neither of them made a move to approach him, and to Keith’s horror, Hunk turned to walk out of the room. “Well, there he is anyway. I was on my way to make some lunch. You two drop by if you get hungry!”

                “H-Hey!”

                “Can’t wait! Food!” the yellow pilot’s voice shouted back faintly from down the hall. He’d already gotten so far. Hunk moved frighteningly quickly when food was on the mind.

                Keith turned back to Lance, trying not to wring his hands nervously.

                “Lance…”

                Of course there was no reaction. Keith had practically murmured his name. He walked up slowly.

                “Lance…!” he said quite a bit louder. Still no reaction. His music couldn’t possibly be _that_ loud. He gently laid a hand on the blue pilot’s shoulder. “Hey, Lance!”

                Nothing.

                Keith crouched down next to the other boy to see Lance’s eyes closed, chin on his chest and book barely held in place by a limp hand in his lap. Keith felt himself go red because _shit. Fuck. He was adorable._ Thank god these doors closed automatically because if someone had happened to walk past and seen the steam very clearly emanating from his face while watching another boy sleep, Keith would probably jettison himself from the castle through the airlock.

                He could hear Lance’s music so clearly it was worrisome. Unfortunately, he was too preoccupied with watching the other’s chest slowly rise and fall under his chin to reach over and turn the volume down on an MP3 he might’ve brought along in his jacket when they all left Earth that day (the headphones looked like they were Pidge’s). He probably sat staring at Lance’s sleeping face longer than he’d stood outside his bedroom door until his eyes finally fell to the book in his lap. Where had he gotten a book anyway?

                Then he realized the words were written in Altean.

                No way. _There was no fucking way._

                Without thinking, he took the book and flipped through it only to find no English anywhere. Or any Earth language, for that matter. Lance stirred next to him, and Keith reflected that he grabbed the book none too gently. His gaze shot up to see dark blue eyes slowly fluttering open and his heart stopped, body going rigid as if caught in the glare of a basilisk.

                _Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit._

_Fuck._

Lance met his eyes sleepily and jumped somewhat, obviously startled. “Keith?”

                “It’s not what it looks like,” he said immediately. He wished he could feel the pain of the mental slap he’d just given himself then. The brunet stretched and yawned, for whatever reason not all that bothered by waking up to see Keith hovering over him in his bedroom. “You scared the hell out of me, man. What’s up? Is the castle under attack?”

                The absence of teasing made Keith remember that Lance’s music was still blasting loudly over his poor abused ears. The mental slapping temporarily turned to mental patting of his own back for not turning down said music when he’d originally thought to do it. He sighed dejectedly when Lance made eye contact with him again.

                “I could tell you anything right now and you’d never know because you can’t hear what I’m saying,” he muttered. Lance watched him talk until he finally realized his headphones were still on. He reached up to slide them off his head, tapping a button on the cord to make the music stop.

                “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

                “I said, ‘Okay, tell me I’m crazy right now and this book’s a prop because you can’t actually read Altean,’” he answered a bit louder. He tried to word it safely in case Lance’s hidden skillset included being able to read lips.

                Lance guffawed, taking the book back from him. “Why? Because you’d be insanely jealous if I could? Because I’m just that cool, learning an entire language in like a month?”

                The raven’s shoulders slumped in disbelief, “You’re joking. You can read Altean?”

                Another small chuckle as Lance mindlessly flipped through the pages. Keith couldn’t find it in himself to get riled up right now. “The look on your face is fantastic, but I guess it’s not worth the existential crisis you look like you’re about ready to have. No, I can’t read Altean. Coran lent me this, a history of Altea, and said if I were ever interested, there are pictures alongside the words that do a pretty good job representing what their society was like,” he confessed, seemingly looking for a particular page. Once he found it, he leaned in Keith’s direction to let him see. The red pilot shifted so he was on his knees and shoulder-to-shoulder with his friend—friend? Yeah friend, Keith decided officially.

                “See? This one is the most interesting one I’ve looked at.”

                He pointed at a cavalry settled on a hill, but the focus was on the steeds. They weren’t horses, but large creatures that looked suspiciously like the Lions. They were leaner and visibly more muscular than Earth lions. They had longer muzzles, pointier ears, and none of them had manes. Of course, that might have just meant they were all female.

                Lance continued excitedly, “These are what lions on Altea looked like, which is funny in itself because what were the chances of an alien race coming up with the same combination of syllables to describe a giant feline species, huh? With this, why Voltron is made up of five components that resemble “lions” makes much more sense to me now. Personally if we’re still talkin’ Earth, they look more like tigers. Or jaguars. At least jaguars have pointy-ish ears.”

                Keith couldn’t help but smile at him. “Lance…”

                “Or maybe ocelots? I like ocelots. They’re small and cute and also have pointier ears than lions do.”

                “Lance.”

                “I got it!” he chimed with a snap of his fingers whilst sitting up straighter. He pointed at Keith with a wide grin. “Shiro’s a tiger, because his “Lion” is fuckin’ gigantic. Hunk’s “Lion” and my “Lion” are jaguars since we’re a bit smaller, and yours and Pidge’s are more like ocelots because they’re tiny and adorable. It’s all coming together!”

                Did that count as Lance indirectly calling Keith adorable? Sure, he’d take it. Lance clapped his hands together as if that was it. He’d found the meaning of life. The show was over and there was no need to save the universe anymore. He crossed his arms jubilantly and Keith could no longer help it. He started laughing.

                He had to keep himself from falling on his ass, so he grabbed Lance’s shoulder to keep his balance while his other hand rested on his tense stomach. He laughed harder when Lance joined him and they were laughing together like fools for at least three minutes.

                When they were done and finally catching their breaths, Keith grinned at his friend, all nervousness gone. “Alright, genius. You wanna go train for a little bit?”

                Lance grinned back. “I don’t know if you can handle watching all these manly muscles do their thing.”

                “Let’s see what you got, cargo pilot.”

                Suffice to say, Keith quickly became much more aware of those so-called “manly muscles” that he previously thought were practically nonexistent during their training session. Lance was evidently getting much better at close range combat. It might not be long before he might actually be able to last more than two minutes against Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Words cannot describe how screwed I am." -- Pheonix Wright, and also probably Keith while pining for Lance.
> 
> Oblivious Keith gives me life.  
> I also found out how to indent my paragraphs, lmao


	3. Blue Death

                “Hey Lance, can I see your Bayard?”

                Keith and Lance blinked down at Pidge owlishly. With some hesitation, the brunet handed it over. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

                She brought it with her to a nearby table and set it down to examine. Lance followed her with Keith on his heels. The both of them peeked over her shoulders, exchanging looks.

                “What’s up? Did you notice it malfunctioning or something?” asked Keith.

                Before Pidge had walked up, Keith was watching Lance target practice. His Bayard hadn’t chosen the form of a rifle for no reason—Lance was probably a better shot than any of them. What he didn’t have in close-range combat he more than made up for with his aim, at least when he was actually serious.

                Getting to watch the sharp muscles in his back tense and relax through his T-shirt was just a bonus really.

                “No, his Bayard is working just fine. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and I just wanna see if I can unlock any hidden potentials it might have,” she answered as she inspected the handle. Instantly, Lance was excited. “Hidden potentials, you say?”

                Keith tilted his head, skeptical. He leaned over next to Pidge with a hand on his hip. “What makes you think there are hidden potentials in _Lance’s_ Bayard specifically?”

                “Not his specifically. He was just the first one I thought to ask. I’ll look at yours next if you want.”

                Pidge grasped the blue Bayard, nodding in understanding when nothing happened, then handed it back to Lance. “Looks like I can’t find anything unless it’s active, and for it to be active, _you_ have to be holding it,” she instructed. Lance did so obediently and his rifle took form again. She squinted at it, from one side to the next. Lance and Keith’s eyes followed her in anticipation. Then she perked up without warning, startling the both of them.

                “Got it!” she chirped, flicking something on the side of the gun near the trigger.

                Lance yelped as his rifle reconstructed itself. The barrel shot forward and the body folded over itself to follow. A scope popped out of the exposed top, and all of a sudden, Lance was holding a rather impressive alien sniper rifle. The stunned silence that followed was broken by a whistle on Lance’s part. Pidge looked absolutely pleased with herself.

                “This baby should be helpful on our stealth missions,” she cooed. Then she shot a dubious glance at Lance. “Assuming you have the self-restraint to even _be_ stealthy.”

                “Hey! I’m the stealthiest stealth-er you’ve ever seen!”

                “He’s right,” Keith agreed with a nod. “At the Garrison, I barely even noticed him. He was practically invisible.”

                Lance whipped around and hit Keith’s chest with the side of the barrel. “I have an alien sniper rifle and zero training on how to use it, so you better _back off, man!_ ”

                Pidge ignored him, turning instead to Keith and lowering Lance’s rifle with her one hand before he took her eye out. “Alright. You’re next. Let’s see what your sword can do that you don’t know about yet.”

                “Maybe it just gets bigger,” Lance suggested with a snicker. Keith scoffed, “What? Like your head?”

                The blue pilot scowled, jabbing a thumb to his chest. “My big head is just proof of how smart I am.”

                “In that case, Pidge’s head should be three times bigger than yours,” Keith shot back.

                “Only three?” asked Pidge, insulted.

                Lance’s Bayard lost its form as he pointed it at the green paladin without looking at her. “She’s fun-sized!” he snapped.

                “Hey!” said Pidge, twice as insulted.

                Lance made a point to tower over Keith with his height advantage as he continued, “You both are! Like your ocelots!”

                “Ocelots?”

                “Don’t ask,” Keith muttered. He held out his sword for her to look at as he and Lance glared at each other. Just like any other time this happened, Keith took advantage of the opportunity to stare into eyes so dark, you could barely tell they were blue at all. It wasn’t weird. He swore it wasn’t.

                “Found it,” she said within seconds. She tapped something on the outside of the hilt and the red of Keith’s sword shone more brightly than ever. Pidge took a step back. “Whoa, looks like it gets really, really hot—probably enough to melt metal like Shiro’s hand.”

                Keith held his sword a little higher and sure enough, even at this distance, could feel the heat licking angrily at his cheeks. His eyes got dry just looking at it and he blinked hard. Instantly, Lance was excited again. “Dude! It’s like you’re wielding a lightsaber!”

                “A what?” Keith asked.

                The blue paladin looked positively affronted.

                “Don’t worry about it,” Pidge dismissed it with a shake of her head.

              

* * *

Keith hissed. Being shoved into a metal wall was hardly a pleasant experience.

                “What. Happened.”

                He didn’t think he’d ever seen Lance this angry before. He was used to kind, cheerful eyes, sometimes full of challenge and arrogance. These were cold with barely suppressed fury. It didn’t suit him. The raven glared back, but didn’t move to wrench the blue paladin’s fist from his breastplate. He tried to hold his gaze for a bit, until guilt overrode him and he looked away. “He said he was right behind me.”

                “And you listened?!” Lance growled incredulously. He released him rather aggressively, with one more solid push into the wall of the Blue Lion’s cockpit. Keith watched him pace, feeling lower than ever.

                “Yes. I trusted him. How was I supposed to know he’d made himself bait?” Keith argued weakly, but already he had closed his eyes in defeat. He knew this was his fault. He had never really been in control of his impulses, so now Hunk was paying the price for it.

                They’d been tasked with a diplomacy mission to gain favor from the inhabitants of planet Carderon, recently suppressed by the Galra Empire, so they were still rebelling. A group of the rebels had planned to infiltrate and sabotage the main base and they’d hoped the two paladins would aid them, but Hunk seemed hesitant. It was for good reason as said base was still in development, and as such, was heavily guarded. Keith convinced him that this would free the Carderonians and give them strength to fight back before the Empire broke their spirits, comparing their situation to Shay and the Balmerans. Of course, that won Hunk over instantly.

                That night, the raid was going well, until one of the Carderonians tripped the alarm in one of the smaller hangars. Keith led the group out while Hunk covered the rear with his gun. He ordered the Carderonians to split off just outside the base while they drew the fire, but the Galra were gaining on them way too quickly, so Keith called Lance, who’d been on standby for pick up. When he reached the extraction point, Hunk was no longer with him.

                And Lance was livid.

                “Must you always act on your impulses?! Can’t you chill out for one god damn second?! Did you not think that maybe your actions could be putting your teammate in danger?! _Do you think at all?!_ ”

                “Alright! I get it!” Keith snapped. “I messed up! Maybe if we double back to the ship, we can—”

                “If you think I’m leaving Hunk alone on this planet, you’re sorely mistaken,” Lance said in a dangerously low voice. “He may not mean much to you, but he’s my best friend. He’s family. And I’ll be damned if I leave it behind again.”

                Keith thought he couldn’t feel much smaller. He must’ve looked pathetic because he thought he might’ve seen the brunet’s anger soften a bit before he whipped his head away with a hiss. Keith had to strain himself to hear it, but Lance had started to mumble to himself.

                “Maybe by some miracle they haven’t realized he’s the yellow paladin yet. He’ll be alright. I’m going to find him, and he’ll be perfectly fine. No interrogations. No torture. Oh Dios! ¿Y si ese es el caso? ¿Y si… No. Todo saldrá bien, Lance. No pienses así. Estás loco. Dios mío, espero que esté bien.”

                Keith had only ever heard Lance slip into Spanish a few times before, usually when he was really emotional about something. Knowing that, it made him feel worse. He stood slowly, ignoring the dull ache at the back of his head where Lance had thrown him roughly into the wall. He was careful to approach, already wary of being manhandled again (because man, there was a surprising amount of strength in those skinny arms of his). When his hand met Lance’s shoulder, the other gave him a piercing look that very clearly stated there was no stopping him. Keith swallowed.

                “I’m sorry,” he said, and the anger on Lance’s face melted once more. “We’ll get him back. I promise.”

                After a second, a furrow set itself in Lance’s eyebrows. Keith was relieved to see it was no longer anger, but determination.

                “You’re damn right.”

                Together, they came up with a plan that was simple: Keith would sneak back into the base since he had a feel for the layout already. But because it was still in development, it was also mostly open, which meant Lance had a rather glorious opportunity to hone his sniping skills. And if anything went wrong, Lance would storm the place with Blue (the only reason they weren’t doing that to begin with was because they had no idea where Hunk was being held captive and Lance didn’t want to accidentally crush him).

                Lance settled himself on a nearby cliff, flashing Blue’s lights twice to signal Keith that he had his back and he was good to go in. The raven was only reassured when he looked back to the gate and saw two sentries collapse where they stood. He moved quickly, trying his best to keep out of sight, but doing so was almost unnecessary. If there was even the slightest chance he could’ve been spotted by someone, Lance took them out. It was like Keith’s mere presence caused them to keel over, which he’ll admit was kind of entertaining.

                “You know, you might want to keep the damage to a minimum. I’m surprised you haven’t caused an uproar yet with all the bodies you’ve been dropping,” Keith teased over transmission.

                “ _Shut up,_ ” said Lance. Keith snorted.

                Regardless, he could only sneak so far before he decided he had no idea where Hunk was being held. It was only to his luck that he spotted an actual Galra soldier rather than one of the droids. He held a hand up in Lance’s direction, hoping he’d see the signal to stand down momentarily, then proceeded to sneak up on his target.

                It couldn’t have played out more smoothly. Within seconds, Keith had the soldier disarmed and pressed against the wall of one of the many buildings scattered throughout the base. He was careful to keep his sword just shy of cutting his throat when he asked, “Where do you hold your captives? Tell me or you won’t last long.”

                The soldier hesitated, seemingly weighing his options. His lips defiantly pursed into a fine line, encouraging Keith to activate that handy new trick Pidge had shown him the other day. It didn’t take long for beads of sweat to appear on his purple skin. “You have five ticks.”

                “There’s a building next to the right of the main hangar. If you head down that way and circle the central turret, you’ll find yourself at the front door,” the soldier directed hastily. Keith watched his throat bob millimeters from the edge of his burning blade and he smirked before releasing him. “Thanks.”

                He turned away, thinking the soldier would take some time to recollect his bearing, only to hear something malicious click behind him. He froze. Well, that was foolish. He’d chosen the wrong situation to show mercy.

                Then something whistled past his head and he jumped, whirling around just in time to see the soldier slide to the ground, helmet smoking from the headshot he’d just received. His heart rammed wildly in his chest when he looked up at where he knew Lance was with the Blue Lion. Because that was _vicious_.

                “Holy shit, Lance,” he uttered after a moment.

                “ _Who turns their back on an alert enemy soldier without knocking them out?! Or tying them up?! Or...! Or... something?! **Who?!**_ ” Lance countered vehemently. Keith supposed he had a point.

                “Right. Sorry,” he apologized sincerely.

                He heard a sigh. Seemed like the blue paladin was too focused on rescuing Hunk to tease him for his mistake or gloat about how he’d just saved Keith’s life, at least for now. Keith was sure he’d be hearing about it later. “ _I see the building he’s talking about. I’ll take out the two sentries by the door, but I don’t know about the inside. I have your back until you get through, but you’re on your own from there,_ ” he said. Keith nodded, peeking around the corner at the route he was to take. “Let’s do this.”

                Just as Lance promised, Keith was able to safely arrive at the building in which Hunk was supposedly being held. He was surprised to see the doors slide open when he pressed a hand to the pad without thinking about it. Inside, all he saw was darkness.

                He cautiously took a step over the threshold, squinting hard. “…Hunk?”

                It was silent for a bit, then he heard a soft stomping in the distance. He lifted his sword on instinct. There was a dull bang and—

                “Keith?! Is that you?”

                It was faint, but Keith could make out Hunk’s outline down the dimly lit corridor somewhat to the left. He heard Lance sigh in relief over the feed, “ _Menos mal…_ ”

                “Are there any guards in here?” he whispered. Hunk matched his hushed tone. “I don’t think so. I’ve been alone in here for a while now.”

                Keith nodded even though Hunk probably couldn’t see it with the dismal lighting. “I’m gonna get you out of here. You know how they open these cells?” he queried as he made his way over. He was careful not to trip over anything. He saw Hunk grinning at him from within his cell. “They’re pretty low security, I think—probably still in development like the rest of the base. From what I saw, it’s just a one-way door. There should be an access pad somewhere on the wall to my right,” he answered.

                Sure enough, Keith found it exactly where Hunk said it was, and the door slid open without resistance or any sort of alarm going off. As soon as the barrier between them was gone, Hunk scooped Keith up into a hug he wasn’t prepared for.

                “God, you don’t know how glad I am to see you, man!”

                “Where’s your helmet?” Keith gasped between deep breaths, noticing the absence. Hunk released him quickly. “Oh. Yeah. I think they tossed it on the table near the entrance. Riiiiiight… here!” he said brightly. He grabbed it and popped his head inside on their way to the exit. Keith mused that this rescue literally could not have gone any smoother. It was a nice change for once.

                “So how did you even pull this off? Did you seriously sneak past all the guards? Because you’re like my hero now, dude.”

                “Well actually, L—“

                Keith found himself stumbling into Hunk when the ground gave a violent tremble beneath their feet. The tremors were short, but there was no doubt that whatever caused it was just outside. Lance’s voice buzzed in their helmets seconds later while the both of them tried to regain their footing, “ _Gentlemen, your extraction has arrived. We ask that you please file in through the jaws of your host feline spacecraft in a rushed, disorderly fashion._ ”

                “Lance!” Hunk beamed. He wasted no time rushing toward the threshold with Keith hot on his heels. From there, the view of the rest of the base was obscured by the somehow welcoming, open mouth of a giant Blue Lion. Keith guessed Lance concluded that subtlety was no longer a necessity on this rescue mission, so without further hesitation, the two paladins sprinted as instructed, making a beeline to join Lance in the cockpit. Keith could hear the ring of turrets and various gunfire just outside. But if the sudden movement he felt that forced him to grasp at the walls was any indication, he’d say Lance was already taking off.

                He turned the corner to see Hunk practically draped over the pilot’s seat. Thick tears spilled from his eyes as he said, “I love you, Lance Charles McClain. I don’t think you understand just how much you mean to me.”

                Huh. So that was his full name. Keith made sure to store that in the back of his mind for later.

                “Hunk, please. I’m getting drenched in your waterworks and they don’t make windshield wipers for these helmets.” Lance attempted to keep his much larger friend at bay with a palm flat against his face, and it seemed to be failing. Keith couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he approached. “C’mon, Hunk. Not when he’s piloting. Lance sucks at multitasking,” he pointed out, smile turning into a grin.

                “OH. HA HA. KEITH’S GOT JOKES.” Lance squinted at Keith over Hunk’s helmet.

                Reluctantly, the yellow pilot pulled away. “Sorry.”

                Back at the castle, the three of them reported to Allura, who was delighted to hear that the Carderonians were definitely interested in assisting the Alteans in their fight against Zarkon. During the debriefing, Hunk did not hold back on glorifying Lance and Keith for their rescue mission.

                “It was all Lance, honestly. I’ve never seen anything like that,” Keith interjected humbly. Hunk and Allura glanced between the two of them. “Like what? What did he do?” the former asked curiously.

                “You know the best sniper in the galaxy?” As expected, Lance pounced on that golden opportunity without hesitation. “Wait! Let me answer that for you: you do. He’s me. Hello.” There was that god damn teeth sparkle again. Seriously, was Keith the only one to wonder how the hell…?

                Allura raised an eyebrow. “Sniper?”

                “Yeah, Allura! How come you never told me my Bayard had the ability to transform into a wicked sick sniper rifle?” the brunet asked. Keith could see him practically glowing. It was a stark contrast to how he had looked just a couple hours beforehand. He wanted him to stay like this.

                “Oh, can it?” she asked in surprise. At Lance’s puzzled look, she expounded, “The Bayards were designed to change form based on their current user’s best potential, convenience and familiarity. This is the first time I’ve seen any of your Bayards take the forms they’ve currently chosen. But if yours allows you take out opponents from a great distance, then that must mean there’s actually something to your boasts, Lance.”

                Allura looked rather proud of him as she said this. Keith found it odd to see Lance so quiet after being given such high praise from the Princess, but the shy red tint to his tanned cheeks clarified why.

                “Dude, are you okay? You’re scowling pretty hard,” Hunk whispered next to him behind his hand. The raven crossed his arms, glancing away as he answered too quickly, “I’m fine.”

                Allura’s voice faded back in to Keith’s attention. “At dinner tonight, we’ll celebrate our new alliance!”

                “Woo!” Lance and Hunk cheered.

                And then they were filing out to go their separate ways. Hunk mumbled something about desperately needing a shower, so Keith decided that it’d probably be best if he took one too before coming down for dinner. A hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks.

                “Hey.”

                He looked around at Lance quizzically. “Lance. What’s up?”

                The blue pilot appeared to listen for moment to be sure they were alone before he said, “I’m sorry.”

                The other blinked. “For what?”

                “What I said back there on Carderon was harsh. I know you care about Hunk. I was just freaking out because… I don’t think I could bear to lose any of you out here,” Lance confessed. He rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’m only going to admit this once and you better not repeat it to anybody, but despite all our fights, I care about you a lot. You all are like my second family. I’d do anything for you guys.”

                Keith couldn’t stop the wince because _oh. His heart._

                “And you know, also for the whole… slamming you into the wall, thing. Sorry for that too. I was out of line.”

                Keith traded in his wince for laughter. He steered himself away from foolishly mentioning he wouldn’t have minded under different circumstances.

                “It’s fine. I understand,” he managed to say after a moment. He even went so far as to venture with a raise of his eyebrows, “So you’d do anything for me, huh?”

                Lance held his hand up, all too ready to backpedal. “Calm down, Mephisto. I made no mention of being desperate enough to sell my soul just yet.”

                The red pilot’s eyebrows fell. “Who?”

                The brunet stared at him blankly, just long enough to make Keith feel a tad uncomfortable. Then without warning, he slung an arm over his co-pilot’s shoulders, expression serious. “Alright, Keith. The first thing I’m going to do for you is teach you about Earth because this is obviously a planet you don’t hail from.”

                “What? Because I never get your obscure references?”

                “See, that’s the thing! They’re _not_ _obscure_!”

                “They are to me!”

                Lance released him only for Keith to go cross-eyed in an attempt to focus on the finger much too close to his face. “Lessons. Every Friday. About pop culture references, literature, and the like. Just you and me,” he decided in a voice that gave no room for argument. Keith shrugged hesitantly. “I… Okay?”

                The other backed away, finger still raised and gaze still intense. The red paladin couldn’t break eye contact with him. Just before Lance side-stepped around the next corner, he repeated lowly, “Friday.”

                Then he disappeared and Keith couldn’t stop from shouting after him, “What day is today?!”

                There was a pause.

                “God dammit!”

                Coran would later tell Keith that it was Hump Day, whatever that meant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The alternative title for this fic is "I Do What I Want".
> 
> I'm Klancing too hard. Somebody stop me.
> 
> **Language note: I'm not a native Spanish speaker. If anyone sees any errors, please don't hesitate to correct me and I will fix it.


	4. The Same Sun

               Keith was enraged.

               There was no other way to accurately describe how he felt when he entered the room in which they had first celebrated successfully forming Voltron without already being in a life-threatening situation. There on the hexagonal bench seat laid Lance with Pidge’s headphones like he hadn’t a care in the world. But that’s not what infuriated Keith.

               No. Lance was _singing_.

               In Spanish.

 _Really well_.

               “ _No mires_ _atrás ningún día  
               Atrévete a dar corazón_

 _I love you, mi vida  
               Desgarra mi vida y pártela en dos_ ”

               Keith stomped over to where the other was laying, ignoring the aggressive fluttering in his stomach. The way Lance spoke in Spanish always tended to make Keith feel a little weak. The way Lance _sang_ in Spanish was enough to make him feel helpless.

               “ _Que se hundan mis_ _días si todo es mentira_ ”

               He towered over Lance from the ledge behind the bench seat and glared, arms crossed. Lance locked gazes with him, evidently surprised at his sudden appearance.

               “ _Y pierdo tu…_ ” he trailed off.

               “That’s not fair,” Keith all but growled. “You can’t have a good singing voice too!”

               “Huh?” Lance looked up at him owlishly, presumably unable to hear a single word Keith was venting.

               “It’s against the rules, okay?!” the raven practically hollered. “Do you realize what you’re doing to me?!”

               Hesitantly, Lance sat up, face completely blank. For a moment, Keith feared the other pilot had actually heard him. How was he going to explain…?

               “Okay so, I can see that you’re yelling at me,” the brunet began slowly. He made no move to remove the headphones from his head. “And I assume it’s for something I did and have already forgotten about. So let me just say that whatever it was, I’m proud of it.”

               “You’re such an ass. Why do I think you’re so charming?” That one was bold, but Keith felt comfortable that Lance still had yet to actually hear him. There was also something about being able to say these things while in the danger of them actually being heard that made Keith feel strangely excited? He could feel the blood pump through his veins at an alarming rate.

               Then Lance reached up and removed the headphones and Keith was almost sad.

               “So tell me what I should be proud of again?”

               “What were you singing just now?” Keith’s curiosity got the better of him. There were no words for how satisfied he felt to see Lance flush hard at the question.

               “It’s nothing. Just some old band,” he tried to brush off, but Keith wasn’t about to let him.

               “What is ‘mi vida’?”

               “Uhm.” Lance looked conflicted on whether to tell him or not. In the end, he did. “It means ‘my life’.”

               “’I love you, my life’?” Keith furrowed his eyebrows in bewilderment. “Are they trying not to die or something?”

               “No, he’s not actually addressing his ‘life’,” Lance explained while making air quotes. “In this case, when he says that, he’s referring to a special lady. Ya feel me?”

               The red paladin blinked, then held out his hand. “Will doing that help me better understand?”

               “What?” Even as he said this, the other took it seemingly without thinking. Then he came to his senses and snatched his hand away again. “No! He calls her his ‘life’ because she means the world to him. Get it?”

               Keith nodded slowly. “I think so.”

               He definitely did. That’s what sucked.

               “I’ve never heard you sing before.”

               “Look, if you’re about to make fun of me, I’m going to challenge you to a duel.”

               “You have a great voice.”

               “Not like a wizard’s duel, but like a… What.”

               Keith felt his face burn, but he couldn’t take it back now. They stared at each other, and soon enough, Lance was red again. But this time, he didn’t look embarrassed. It was more like he was just really flattered.

               “Thanks, Keith,” he said finally. He sounded so sincere. And he was grinning like an idiot. And Keith loved it.

               Lance gasped.

               “I love this song,” he muttered so lowly, the other boy almost missed it.

               Keith blinked. “What?”

               “This song!” the brunet turned to his formerly forgotten MP3 and headphones and turned up the volume. Then he did something that caused Keith to panic.

               He got up and started dancing. He was raising his arms and swaying his hips like shamelessly bursting into dance was the most normal thing to do on an alien spaceship in the middle of nowhere, and Keith had no idea what to do with himself aside from watch in bemusement. He barely registered the lyrics from the music.

               “ _Te digo claro claro_  
               _no es nada raro raro_  
_asi se puede amor._ ”

               Not like he could understand them anyway. Watching Lance dance could not be described as anything but awkward, yet somehow fun. He didn’t dance as well as he sung, Keith decided. Lance’s tall, lanky body wiggled along with the beat enthusiastically, but his movements were erratic and sometimes lagged behind the supposed rhythmic queues. And yet somehow, his evident self-assurance and zeal more than made up for that. Keith’s current predicament was figuring out how to react. As far as he was concerned, he had three options to choose from. He could either a) continue to watch (awkwardly), b) laugh and tease, or c) turn around and leave.

               So when Lance suddenly held out his hand to him in an unexpected fourth option, Keith felt something malfunction in the gears inside his head. The raven slowly looked up from the offered hand to Lance’s face, and upon seeing the large, bright grin of invitation, felt the machinations of his brain collapse into a pile of grey matter rubble. Lance could probably see the steam of failure steadily rising from the back of his noggin.

               Then he impatiently grabbed Keith’s hand and pulled him so he had to stumble down across the bench seat, and Keith was yelping in protest under circumstances he was currently unable to comprehend, “Whoa! W-Wait! _No!_ ” He was panicking so much, his voice had cracked. He attempted to pry Lance’s hand off his wrist and escape but somehow the blue pilot’s grip was strangely vise-like. “What is this?! What are you doing?! Why are you making me do it too?!” he pleaded frantically.

               Lance laughed. _Laughed_. At his _turmoil_!

               “Don’t tell me the amazing, too-cool-for-school mullet is too cool to dance?” he teased while grabbing the distressed paladin’s other hand. Keith feared the machinations in his chest would collapse next when Lance entwined their fingers. He then pushed one of their clasped hands towards Keith while pulling the other towards himself, then vice versa, all while shaking his hips to the music. Keith wanted nothing more than to drop dead. Maybe he wanted Lance to drop dead too. That’s fine. They could be together in the afterlife. Keith was okay with that. Sure, without them, the galaxy would be doomed and everyone enslaved by the Galra but that would all be water under the bridge.

               “You’re not moving! C’mon, drop-out. Don’t make me do all the work!” Lance’s whine brought Keith back to reality. And somehow… it kicked something competitive somewhere in the debris of his brain matter. There was something about Lance that always set aflame this burning desire in Keith to _prove him wrong_.

               So he put aside the anxiety threatening to further break his mental state and instead focused on copying the other boy’s movements. Hesitantly, he began to push when Lance pulled, and pull when Lance pushed, getting a feel for the rhythm of the song. Then he started to shift his weight between his feet until he glanced down to see his hips teetering from side to side. Holy shit, he was dancing! At least, he thought he was.

               “There you go! That’s better!”

               Keith made the mistake of looking up in begrudging excitement to meet Lance’s eyes because _goddammit, that smile was **illegal**_.

               “Here comes the chorus again!” Keith didn’t even remember the first time it came around. He was already unprepared for it when he heard Lance start singing along. Surprise! Now he was even more unprepared for it.

               “ _Yo quiero que este_  
                _sea el mundo que conteste_  
_del este hasta oeste_  
_y bajo el mismo sol._ ”

               Keith felt his knees go weak. He aggressively stared down at their shuffling feet to gain back some of his lost sanity, but it was clear he was fighting a losing battle. To be fair, Lance was cheating.

               “ _Ahora nos vamos!_  
                _Sí juntos celebramos!_  
                _Aqui todos estamos  
               _ _bajo el mismo sol._ ”

               He was cheating so god damn hard.

               “ _Y bajo el mismo sol._ ”

               The piss-ant.

               “ _Y bajo el mismo sol._ ”

               Keith briefly wondered why his cheeks hurt until he realized he’d been grinning hard for a while now. He was having fun, and it didn’t involve fighting or flying, which was a completely new development for him. Lance had magically melted away his social insecurities by forcing him to enjoy something he’d always been adamant about never trying. And for some reason, Keith realized that was utterly fucking _hilarious_ , so he found himself cracking up.

               Lance started cracking up too. They were dancing together and laughing together—something Keith couldn’t have predicted to happen in a hundred million years. He was laughing so hard, his sides began to hurt and he started to have difficulty breathing, but he couldn’t stop. Neither could Lance.

               The brunet let go of one of his hands and before Keith could be sad about it, made him twirl in way that made Keith feel like he actually knew what he was doing. Lance then twirled himself under Keith’s arm to untwist their awkward hold on each other. It was such a small action, but it somehow changed everything.

               When the blue pilot’s swaying slowed to a stop, Keith mirrored him out of instinct. The resounding silence outside of their panting informed Keith that the song had finally ended. They were both sweating but neither of them seemed to care. Lance released Keith’s hands to wipe his face on the sleeve of his jacket. He was still grinning.

               “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” The grin fell into a smirk as Lance’s eyes narrowed smugly. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

               “What else can I do when you force me into playing your sick games?” Keith shot back.

               The other brought a hand to his chest in mock pain. “That hurts me, buddy. Hurts me bad. All I wanted was to introduce some cheerful melodies into that cold, distant heart of yours. Y’know, get some rad tunes bumpin’ in that empty space hidden inside that dumb mullet.”

               Keith punched him in the shoulder. Instantly, they were laughing again.

               He honestly couldn’t think of a moment he’d ever felt happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Song Credits:**  
>  **I Love You Mi Vida - D'Nash** (Lance listens to Spanish boy bands. Nerd.)  
>  **El Mismo Sol - Alvaro Soler** (Fuckin' love this song.)
> 
> This was a super short one.
> 
> I need Lance to teach Keith how to dance.
> 
> Seriously guys, if there's a shitpost or fanart or just an idea/headcanon you want me to ref in this fic, I will do it. No questions asked (unless it gets too cracky, I dunno).


	5. Even You

               “What is that?”

               “What is what?”

               “That thing. On your head.”

               “Oh this little guy?” Hunk grinned. “Can’t you tell?” He grabbed said thing off his head. “It’s Lil’ Yellow!”

               He pushed the plushie in Keith’s direction proudly. The other pilot leaned back before Hunk could press it against his face, trying not to go cross-eyed. It was about the size of a normal cat, maybe a little bit larger, and it was… strangely accurate to the real thing, perhaps missing a finer detail or two, but still true to the much larger mechanical feline Hunk piloted.

               “Isn’t she adorable!?” he asked. He didn’t give Keith much time to respond before he cuddled it shamelessly. Then he spun around to stride in the direction he had been previously headed towards before Keith had stopped him. Probably the kitchen, Keith mused. And with the resounding thought of “That sure was a thing that happened,” he continued on his merry way to Shiro’s room. Why was he headed to Shiro’s room?

               To ask him to help him train, of course. Why else?

               He didn’t pass by anyone else on the way there. He supposed that wasn’t odd; it was pretty early in the morning and thinking back on it, it was interesting that Hunk was even awake and about at this hour. Keith guessed it was because they had another mission today. Allura had landed the castle on a small, somewhat primitive planet called Wej yesterday. Once at his destination, Keith knocked three times and listened for a response. There was none, so Keith tried a second time. “Shiro?” he called through the door. Still no answer.

               He shrugged, pressing his hand to the access pad. “I’m coming in!”

               Unsurprisingly, he did not see Shiro in his room. After a brief scan of the empty chamber, he however _did_ see something eerily familiar sitting in the middle of his desk. Keith raised an eyebrow, crossed the threshold and stared down at the tiny Black Lion plushie casually gazing through his stomach. _Shiro_ had one of these too? Hunk was not much of a surprise but… The black paladin? Leader of Team Voltron? The one Lance referred to as “Space Dad”? _That_ Shiro? If Keith weren’t so perplexed, he’d have burst out laughing by now.

               Instead, he turned on his heel and left to track said leader down. First he tried the deck, which was also empty. Then he tried the training room—that was empty too. For the hell of it, he tried the infirmary to find (surprise!) no one. At least when he went to the kitchen he found Hunk in his rightful place, cooking up a buffet of a breakfast because he could, Lil’ Yellow still perched on his noggin. No one was sitting in the dining room though. Keith ticked off every room he had visited in his head. He had even tried the room he and Lance had danced in together the other day to find not one living soul in sight. So that left… The rest of the castle that he had no knowledge of. What was that? Like… 70-80 unexplored rooms?

               Well, there was also the… that one room that Pidge liked to work on her tech in. He wasn’t quite sure what that room was called, but it was one of the only rooms left that he’d actually been in before. He figured why not.

               A couple minutes saw the red paladin at the door to said unnamed chamber. He nearly tripped over some cables on his way inside, which would’ve been a disaster considering just how much scrap metal and cords were strewn about. Keith guessed this was basically Pidge’s room now, in which she was free to experiment, engineer and upgrade as she pleased. Hunk sometimes joined her, and they science’d together sometimes all throughout the night and the day following. After a few careful steps, he called out, “Pidge?” And just in case, “Shiro?”

               Lo and behold: there was no answer.

               He continued through the jungle of hanging wires and lead glass tube trees. If his pace had dramatically quickened to a stride, it surely had nothing to do with that thing that just sparked on his way past.

               “Pidge?” he tried a second time. The pilot halted to scan the area and spotted a soft glow behind a few stacks of large metal canisters. He rounded the pile to find just who he was looking for propped up against the tins. The green paladin was fast asleep, laptop still running quietly in her lap. She must’ve been up all night researching and working on one of her projects. Someone had somehow lifted her laptop and snuck a blanket over her body, along with…

               Keith blinked.

               What was that in her lap?

               Keith stormed out of the lab and made a beeline toward he had no idea. What the hell was going on?! Was this a threat? Were they in danger? Where were these things coming from? Why did everyone have one except him? Was he next? Or was this a delusion? A trick? What if they were little shape-shifting aliens infiltrating the castle? Wh—

               Keith pulled back just in time to avoid running straight into Coran upon turning down the next corridor. The Altean greeted him brightly, “Why, good morning, Keith!”

               “Morning, Coran,” he returned more out of gut impulse than anything. He closely scrutinized the redhead to see if he was accompanied by an object of suspicion and found none.

               “Looking for Shiro, are you?”

               Surprised by the accurate conjecture, Keith cut his observations short to look Coran in the eye as he answered, “Uh, yeah actually. How did you…?”

               “Just a guess. You looked like you were headed toward somewhere important, but the training room is in the other direction.” Coran pointed overhead to further make his point. The other momentarily cogitated what that might’ve implied. Could his actions on the ship be summed up as a simple sequence between training and talking to Shiro?

               He tried not to think about it.

               “Do you know where he is, Coran?” he asked distractedly. The man brought his arm back to point behind him. “Down the hall, second left, first door on your right.”

               “Thanks,” he said. Then he paused. “Coran, you don’t have a…”

               The other raised an eyebrow.

               “Nevermind.” Keith hurried along.

               “Oh, alright! Don’t forget to eat breakfast if you haven’t already!” Coran called after him. “Get some nutrients for your brain cage!”

               The raven was basically double-timing now, knowing he was finally getting closer to his objective. Second left, first door on the… right. It looked like any other door really… Oh, except for the fact that there was some sort of monitor on the face of it. It was black right now, and Keith for a moment wondered what it was meant to show. Not like it mattered since it would probably be in Altean, whatever it was. Once that train of thought ended, he hesitated.

               Should he knock?

               Nah.

               Upon entering, the first thing he noticed was that this wasn’t a room at all; it was a _balcony_ , as in it was very much open and it was very much overlooking the forestry around them. Wej had three suns, two of which could be seen easily from where he stood in the doorway. Vi, the largest and the one Wej actually orbited, hung bright and orange in the sky as Diapa shined white below it, a bit off to the right. The second thing he noticed was Shiro leaning with his arms rested atop the edge guard. The third thing he noticed was Lance. He was sitting on the wall to Shiro’s left, legs hanging off the other side.

               Shiro glanced over his shoulder at the sound of the door sliding open. He grinned. “Keith! Hey!” Lance turned at that, also greeting their newest company with a wave and a, “Yo!”

               The raven made to join them. “What’re you guys doing out here?” The pair had enough of a gap between them for Keith to comfortable settle himself in the middle. He hadn’t been outside once since they’d landed on this planet, so when he saw the thick green forest span for miles, coupled with the fact that Allura had apparently landed the ship on a beach, he actually forgot for a moment about the weird mini Lion enigma that had had him questioning reality earlier. He almost didn’t hear the reply to his question.

               “Just enjoying the view,” said Shiro. “Lance and I think this might be the one planet that reminds us of home the most so far.”

               “I gotta admit… the water here might be even bluer than what we had at Veradera Beach,” the brunet stated with a small smile aimed at the sea. He lolled his head back to look at the other two again. “You guys think the Princess will let us go swimming?”

               Their leader looked like he was considering it. “I’m not sure. The mission here is just another matter of diplomacy, and there’s no sign of the Galra. Once we’re done, I don’t think she’d mind us enjoying ourselves a little bit.” Lance grinned just before righting himself again. “Sweet! I’ll leave those negotiations to you, Space Dad.”

               Shiro chuckled at the title. For whatever reason, that reminded Keith that he had something very important to ask him. “Shiro, I went to your room earlier and… there’s this… _thing_ on your desk—“

               “You’re talking about the Black Lion doll, right?” the man cut him off. He raised his eyebrows and nodded past Keith, just in time for Lance to sound again behind him. “Oh right, I almost forgot.” Keith turned to the blue paladin to see him reaching inside his jacket. “I actually just finished this one.”

               And out popped a miniature Red Lion. He held it up, but he wasn’t necessarily handing it to the raven when he said, “I figured you wouldn’t want it though. You know. Because you’re Keith.”

               But said boy was too busy trying to absorb the situation right now to really hear that. He stared at the plushie between them, then he slowly lifted his gaze to Lance, expression blank. “You… _made_ these?”

               And in a second, Lance was red with embarrassment. He looked away quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I knit when I’m stressed, okay?! It’s manly!” His eyes shot back up to meet the black paladin’s for validation. “Right, Shiro?”

               “I don’t know about _manly_ , but it is really amazing what you’re able to do. You have a talent, Lance,” the man commented warmly. Keith, on the other hand, wanted to punch something.

               Why was this guy _so. Friggin’. Cute?! Ugh!_

               “Who did you say taught you again?”

               “My Abu—“ Lance hesitated, then corrected quickly, “My grandmother. She knits all the time. Though she didn’t… _actually_ teach me, I guess.” He thought for a second. “She suffered a stroke when I was eight and was bedridden for a while. I taught myself to knit around then so I could make her things while she wasn’t able to. Guess I realized how relaxing it was, so I started knitting things for the rest of my family.”

               He looked at the Lion in his hands fondly, almost sadly actually. “Seems only right that I do the same for you guys,” he said softly. He opened his mouth to say something else, but stopped himself and remained silent.

               “That means a lot, Lance—to all of us, I’m sure,” Shiro replied to Keith’s right. Then he slipped his arms off the wall and took a step back. “I have to hit the restroom. I might go have a chat with Allura too, so don’t wait up for me. I’ll catch you boys later.”

               “’Kay. Later!” Lance saluted him while Keith simply nodded.

               And then they were alone and Keith had no idea how to start up conversation again, much less how to communicate that he actually _wanted_ the little Red Lion Lance had made for him without being humiliated. Fortunately, he realized there was something else he was curious about before the silence between them got too long. He leaned on the edge guard, looked up at Lance through his bangs and began slowly, “Hey, Lance? Can you tell me more about your family? What your hometown was like?” He’d honestly wanted to ask this for a very, very long time, since they first mind-melded actually. By now, everyone on the team was pretty aware of how lacking Keith’s past was. The details of those days were blurry, even for Keith, and what memories he _could_ recall… they weren’t ones he was fond of.

               The brunet surveyed him for the briefest moment. Keith almost missed the flash of what might’ve been understanding in his eyes when a larger than life smile broke out on Lance’s face and he launched into an explanation he was more than happy to give.

               “Well first off, I have three siblings: two brothers and one sister. I'm the baby but I don't know if it counts because then there’s Veronica and we’re actually twins. She was born only like thirteen minutes before me and I'm still salty about it because she's still treated more like the baby than I am. After her, there's my older brother Marco and my oldest brother Luis. Marco can be a huge jerk sometimes, but I still love him to death. And honestly, Luis is just a huge teddy bear. He's always been there to bail me out of everything.” Lance was talking at a speed Keith almost couldn’t keep up with. It’s like he’d been practically bursting to share these details with the first person to finally ask him. And Keith was completely sucked in.

               “Anyway, so there’s my mom, Angelina, but she goes by Angie. She gives the best hugs, _period_. And she can throw a grown man halfway across a football field. It’s true. I’ve seen her do it once. And then my mom's sister Carmen and her husband Raimundo live next door. Mom used to let us get away with anything, but Uncle Rai was always there to be the discipline. He’s also the funniest man who’s ever lived, I swear. Uncle Rai always had us rolling on the floor laughing until our sides were sore. My grandpa Gil and grandma Rina live with us too. They’re the sweetest old people you would meet in your entire lifetime. And then lastly, there’s Luis' wife Diane and their kids. My adorable nephew Samuel should be six now, and my sweetheart baby niece Audrey is three.

               “My family lives near the beach because Lito used to be a fisherman. Ma—“

               “Lito?” Keith interrupted in confusion. Lance blinked at him dazedly, train of thought completely wrecked probably. He shook his head to collect his bearings again. “Sorry, I mean my grandpa Gil.”

               “Don’t be sorry. Call them what you call them. Just, y’know, I still need to know who you’re talking about to be able to follow you,” Keith explained with a small chuckle. The other seemed to be considering him, then he took off again. “I gotcha.”

               He cleared his throat just prior to continuing. “Mamá used to tell us Lito hired my dad to help him on his boat when they were our age. That’s how he met Mamá. And you know, he got this super huge crush on her because Mamá was a beautiful, intelligent young lady but she was also his boss’s daughter so she was untouchable, that whole thing. But Lito and Lita actually saw it from a mile away and decided to play matchmaker, so the rest of that is history."

               Keith didn't miss how Lance spoke of his father in the past tense. He never even mentioned his name.

               “Anyway, we live in a pretty small town; everyone knows everyone, especially Mamá, since she worked a number of odd jobs when she was a teenager. And like I said, the beach wasn’t far off. My god, Keith. _Varadero Beach…_ The white sand, the clear sky, the blue water… I don’t think I could ever find waves more perfect for surfing.” Lance looked like he was swooning at the memory. Keith raised his eyebrows with interest. “You surfed?”

               Lance made a noise like the mere idea that he didn’t was simply preposterous. “Only _every day_ before I moved to the Garrison. There’s nothing—I repeat— _nothing_ like being on the inside of the tube, Keith. There are few times I’ve ever felt more satisfied than when I was trimming through Varadero pipelines.”

               The raven found himself grinning while watching the other revel in the memory. He decided not to think too hard about Lance’s unusual use of plumbing terms during his explanation. “I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” he said.

               “Yeahh. I feel for you, buddy. I really do.” Lance turned back to look out at the water of the planet they were on. “The ocean here looks pretty calm. There’s not a lot of wind. I wonder if it’s always like this…”

               Keith rested his jaw on one of his open hands, elbow propped up on the wall and eyes studying Lance suspiciously when he started, “So you sing, you surf, you sew… What’s with all these hidden talents all of a sudden?”

               “ _Knit_ ,” Lance corrected. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve always done all of the above.”

               “This is the first time I’ve heard about them,” came the retort.

               “We’ve been fighting aliens!” the other argued. “In space! With gigantic alien feline warships! Forgive me for not flaunting all of my mundane gifts. I’ve been kind of busy.”

               “That’s what surprises me. You’re pretty quick to thrust any _other_ accomplishment in the team’s face,” Keith countered honestly. This statement caused Lance to scrutinize him for longer than the red paladin was prepared for. He actually looked a little offended, maybe even _hurt_. “You really don’t think much of me, do you?” he asked suddenly.

               The other pilot was at a loss for words at that. He had not expected that kind of reaction whatsoever. He thought Lance might pick a fight or even maybe proudly admit to it, but it was evident that what the raven said had struck a chord this time. Lance looked away and clicked his tongue irritably. “I don’t do that just to brag. I have my reasons,” he muttered under his breath.

               Keith stood a little straighter, attempting to hide how confused and flustered he was. “I didn’t…” he began weakly. The brunet still didn’t look at him. “Whatever. I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

               “I’m sorry,” Keith apologized quickly. Blue eyes found him again and he let the cautious wave of relief wash over him. “However that sounded, I didn’t mean it. I just…” He wasn’t sure what to follow up with. Lance’s unreadable gaze was filling his head with noise he was unable to process through. Then for a split second, the raven caught what he might’ve thought was the beginning of a smile on the blue paladin’s face. Keith briefly wondered if he had just imagined it.

               But all of a sudden, Lance was yelling. “Oh, what? So now you’re trying to be the bigger man!? Why you always tryin’ to one-up me, huh!?”

               There were no words for how taken aback Keith was at that moment. “I… What?! I’m _apologizing_ to you!” he shouted incredulously. Lance scoffed and the red pilot felt his already hot head burn with the intensity of a thousand suns. “You can’t fool me, Keith. I can’t trust any apology you give. You probably just want me to lower my guard so you can continue to one-up me and make me look like a jack-ass. I see your game.”

               “... _What_?!” Keith wanted to grab him and shake some sense into his thick, ~~gorgeous~~ egotistical skull. “Why would I waste my time doing that when that’s how you look by default?”

               “Well at least my default look isn’t from the 80’s. What did you do? Ferment in _Hot_ _Topic_ for eleven years?”

               Keith didn’t want to admit that he had no idea what Lance just said. Regardless, he sputtered angrily, “Why are you like this? Because I _apologized_? Do you hate me so much that you can’t even accept when I admit that I’ve wronged you?!”

               They stared at each other for a couple seconds. Lance’s lip twitched and he winced as though he were holding something back. Keith gaped at him, waiting readily for whatever jibe Lance had yet to throw at him. Then the bastard had the gall to start cracking up. Keith only gawked harder. Eventually, the other shook his head in what looked like defeat. “As much as I hate to say it, you shouldn’t be sorry. I should know by now how painfully straight you are,” he said.

               If Keith weren’t so flustered and consumed with baffled rage, he might’ve laughed really, _really_ hard at that. He watched Lance lean back on his hands and smirk that dazzlingly infuriating smirk. “It’s just so fun to argue with you.” Keith made a face. “You have a strange definition of fun.”

               The doors to the balcony slid open behind them and they both turned to see Pidge in the doorway. The first thing Keith noticed was the small Green Lion plushie cradled in her arms. “Hey, Allura says it’s time to head down. We’re going to talk with the village head and then she says we’re clear to do what we want for the rest of this planet’s daylight,” she said.

               Lance hopped off the wall and stood on the tips his toes, stretching his arms over his head, all of a sudden looking revitalized. “That’s what I’m talking about! I hope this place sells swimming trunks because I am _ready, baby_!” he chimed excitedly. Together, he and Keith joined Pidge at the threshold, only to be completely caught off guard when the green paladin wrapped one of her arms around Lance’s middle in a lopsided hug without any warning whatsoever.

               “Thank you, by the way,” she murmured into his chest almost grudgingly. Keith watched the stubborn frown on her face as she said it, complimented by a light blush of embarrassment. When he looked up to see what kind of expression Lance was making, he was quick to notice he was blushing too. He almost wanted to wrench them apart.

               The brunet didn’t have much of an opportunity to return the surprise hug when Pidge hurriedly stepped back and adjusted her glasses with a cough. She squeezed the mechanical kitten into her bosom fondly. “I love it,” the pilot declared with a small smile. With that, Keith realized Lance must’ve placed it in Pidge’s lap while she had been sleeping in the lab, probably not too long before Keith had wandered in looking for Shiro.

               “Awh, you made one for Keith too?”

               That brought both boys out of their momentary stupors.  All eyes were drawn to the small Red Lion replica Lance had been holding in his right hand this entire time. He shrugged, holding it up to Pidge’s eye level as he replied, “Yeah. Seemed a shame to not complete the set, but this _is_ Keith we’re talking about. I figure he’d just tell me he’s too cool for stuffed animals.”

               “First of all, I don’t say things like that,” Keith jumped to his own defense immediately. “And secondly, why would you assume I wouldn’t want something you’ve made for me? You were so ready to give one to everyone else.” In all honesty, he felt a little hurt.

               Lance studied him curiously, then he held the tiny Red Lion up in his direction. “So, you want it?” There was just the slightest edge of teasing to his voice when he asked this. That, plus both pilots’ stares of anticipation were all it took for Keith to flush red with embarrassment. Admitting to it outright suddenly proved a lot more difficult than simply arguing Lance’s original point. The conflicting emotions of wanting to deny and accept the gift at the same time gave rise to a weird conglomeration of stubborn frustration in Keith’s chest that made him snap, “Just give me the damn Lion!”

               He snatched it from Lance’s hands more aggressively than he had intended and, unwilling to deal with the bouts of laughter that were bound to ensue, stormed away to the control room where Allura was summoning them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me for the dumb fuckin title, lmao (Edit: Title is now less dumb.)
> 
> Edit 2: Fixed Lance's description of his family based on Season 5 even though this is basically a dead fic, lmao. I'll probably keep fixing it as the series goes on regardless.
> 
> This one ended pretty abruptly. It also felt slow. Like... Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix slow. Sorry guys. I missed my initial post dates so I wanted to get it up asap. Work, school and WoW are taking away my life. ):
> 
> Keith gets some insight into Lance's family~


	6. Rivalry Acknowledged

               “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to welcome you to… _The Beach Episode_!”

               “What nonsense are you saying now?” Keith asked offhandedly as he followed the rest of them to the water. As promised, Allura allowed everyone to enjoy their afternoon how they wanted, which resulted in the whole team heading to the shore they were stationed near. She and Coran said they’d join them later.

               Lance waggled his eyebrows at him. “Think about if our lives were a TV series for a minute—obviously a Sci-fi. Practically every show that spends enough time on air has at least _one_ beach episode. And for us, right now would be it!”

               “Are you sure you’re just not thinking about anime, ya nerd?” Pidge asked as she undressed down to her tank top and a pair of shorts she’d apparently been wearing under her other shorts. Lance looked back and waved at her. “Hi, pot. I’m kettle.”

               After which she just shrugged. “That’s fair.”

               “You guys are so busy flapping your faces that I’m going to be the first one that dives in!” Hunk called over his shoulder. He had made a mad dash toward the water. Pidge chased after him. Keith noticed Shiro chuckle from where he stood on the other side of Lance before he started undressing himself.

               “When was the last time I enjoyed the beach? I can’t even remember,” he mused, mostly to himself. Lance bent down to remove his shoes and roll up his pants when he replied, “Not me. I remember _exactly_ the last time I went.”

               Keith made no move to mimic them. He had yet to trust this planet entirely. It’s not like they could establish diplomatic relations with the wildlife here. As far as he was concerned, he had to be prepared for the worst, which meant shoes on, 24-7.

               “My family threw a Going-Away barbecue for me on the beach the day before I left for the Garrison,” the brunet elaborated shortly. He set his shoes neatly to the side and sighed, “Then it rained on us.”

               Shiro laughed. “That’s unfortunate.”

               “Nah, it was a good memory,” Lance waved off with a shrug. The red paladin watched him shove his hands into his pockets and begin striding toward the water. “You’re going in like _that_?” Keith called after him.

               “Something as precious as this needs to be enjoyed in stages, mi compadre!” Lance shouted back over his shoulder.

               Keith watched as the brunet stepped into the waves only as far as until the water reached his mid-calf. Then he simply stood there with his hands still in his pockets and Keith was more confused than previously. Hadn’t they come to the beach because Lance missed _swimming_ and _surfing_ and just plain _being submerged_ in water? Why was he just standing there? He was barely in the water at all!

               “Don’t worry. He’ll get in eventually,” Shiro commented to his left. The raven turned to stare at him. Had he been talking out loud? Shiro simply smiled and added, “Your confusion was written all over your face,” as he pointed at said face. Then he nudged Keith’s shoulder with his shoulder.

               “C’mon. If there ever was a time to enjoy yourself and take a break from this crazy space war, it’s now,” he said as he trotted to join the rest. Keith remained planted where he was, arms folded and subconscious scowl apparent. He kept patting the Bayard he’d brought with him to be sure it was still there. While the others splashed around without a care, Keith scoped the perimeter, including the sky. There was no telling what could—

               “You look like an alien fleet is going to show up and start raining balls of radioactive rodents down on us.”

               Keith’s gaze fell to see Lance scrutinizing him over his shoulder. He frowned.

               “That’s because an alien fleet _could_ show up and start raining… Radioactive rodents?” he trailed off in inquiry. Lance shrugged.

               “Crazy dream I had last night.”

               He then gestured to the rest of the team that were a bit further into the water. “You, however, need to remove that ten-foot pole from your anal region and unwind like the rest of us sane people.”

               “You’re one to talk. You’re just standing there!” Keith retorted. “What are you even accomplishing by getting your feet wet?”

               “Au contraire, connard. This is one of the most relaxing things anyone could do ever,” Lance countered easily. “You could see for yourself what I mean, or you could continue to brood in your nonexistent corner of paranoia.”

               If there was someone who knew the magic words to make Keith do things out of spite, it was Lance. Why was it so hard to ignore his instigations? The red pilot guessed it was just another unfortunate bonus to how smitten he was.

               Within minutes, Keith had copied Lance’s earlier movements and soon found himself joining him where he stood.

               Lance crossed his arms and whistled. “Gotta admit, I didn’t think you’d actually do it. Good to know you’re not afraid of a little water. Proud of ya, Keith.”

               “So what now? Am I supposed to feel enlightened now that my feet are submerged in the ocean?” the other asked, sarcasm evident in his voice. His teammate tutted. “And just like that, you let me down again. You’re telling me you don’t feel it?”

               Keith’s eyebrows furrowed. “Feel what?”

               “The ocean,” Lance answered as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back. “The water, the breeze, the sun…s. I’m in my _element_ here.”

               The raven blinked. He looked down at his feet, back up at the horizon, glanced sideways at the other three paladins of Voltron, and finally back at Lance, all while paying special attention to everything the other had mentioned. He thought about the feel of the water sifting and circling around his legs. He thought about how the wind gently pushed passed his cheeks and ruffled his jacket, while the suns of Wej reached out to hold him with warm hands. Lance turned to meet his gaze and Keith found himself already speaking.

               “I don’t feel anything.”

               Lance made a face.

               “And yet somehow you ruin _everything_.”

               Keith shrugged, smirking despite himself. “Guess this isn’t my element.”

               “Can that be my excuse to toss you into an active volcano?” the blue pilot asked with a grin.

               “If you think you guys can pilot Voltron without its _right_ _arm_.”

               “We’ll take our chances.”

               The red paladin snorted. “Good luck.”

               Lance laughed. It reflected their banter, lacking its usual bite, and Keith tried not to stare too hard. Like before after the "Rescue-Hunk" fiasco, the boy was practically _glowing_. _Again._ \--Unless that was some weird filter Keith’s eyes had applied to Lance by default. If not, he really _must’ve_ been in his element.

               Then Keith heard something rumble above them.

               He felt a drop of water hit his cheek.

               And then another.

               And another.

               He looked to Lance to see blue eyes wide and trained on the clouds above them. And without much warning at all, the rain fell while the clouds rushed to hide the lights of Vi and Diapa behind them. It started quick but soft and then progressively got harder. He heard Hunk somewhere off in the distance whine, “Awh, man! We just got in!”

               “Can’t we enjoy _one_ lazy day at the beach?” Pidge groaned. There were splashes of his teammates wading through the water and Keith watched as Shiro briefly stopped between them to lay a sympathetic hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Sorry, Lance,” he said hurriedly. “There’ll be another day.” And then he trudged on with Pidge and Hunk close behind to salvage their clothes. Keith followed suit only to stop when he realized the brunet did not do the same. He turned to see Lance in exactly the same position he had left him, and sprinted back.

               “Lance, c’mon!” he called through the downpour. His already drenched hair fell heavy over his eyes and he distractedly swept it away to see the other pilot looking back at him. Lance opened his mouth and the words came out slow and monotonous.

               “It’s raining, Keith.”

               “I know! I’m sorry,” Keith returned with a frown. It was painful to think about how happy and ready Lance was to do this only to have it ripped away in minutes.

               But then Lance beamed. “It’s _raining_ , Keith!” he repeated louder. Before the raven could answer again, the blue paladin grabbed his arms and shook him in excitement. “IT’S. RAINING.” He looked borderline _hysterical_.

               “Yes! It’s raining! That’s why everyone’s leaving!” Keith shouted, positively baffled.

               Lance mirrored his frown. “Why?! God, you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this…” His hands fell then. Keith watched him look back to the sky before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Despite the fact that it felt like someone was draining a lake above them, Lance looked more relaxed than before. The raven thought he might’ve even heard him sniffle.

               “Are you… crying?” he asked, unable to suppress the upward curve to his lips.

               “No!” Lance defended quickly. His eyes shot open and he glared at him. “Can’t you see it’s _raining_?”

               “Oh.” Perhaps he was mistaking the raindrops for tears.

               “There’s a village nearby, right?” the brunet asked suddenly. Keith raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes, Lance. You were with us when we _went_ there.”

               “Always living in the past, Keith,” Lance shook his head in disappointment. But then he glanced at his copilot impishly and the latter was almost afraid of what this meant for him.

               “We should go,” came the equally abrupt declaration.

               “What? Why?”

               “Because I want to splash in puddles!”

               Keith gawked and pointed at where their feet were still submerged in the ocean water. “You are literally standing in the biggest puddle this planet has to offer! Why can’t you splash _here_?!”

               Lance glared back, visibly insulted. “It’s not the same!” he argued with a stomp of his foot. Apparently it was possible for him to look even more childish than usual. Then he crossed his arms defiantly. “You don’t have to come with me. I’ll go on my own!”

               This bastard always made Keith want to rip his hair out. “Is this—!“ But then he paused because now that he thought about it, this probably _was_ really important to Lance, as silly as it seemed. Shiro had said earlier that Wej was the planet he and Lance thought felt most like Earth—like home. This was the first planet they had landed on where they’d seen beaches and _rain_ and Keith didn’t think he’d seen Lance this hyped since they all first realized they were guardians of the galaxy—galaxies?

               Keith’s gaze fell on the other teen again, or at least it tried to. It was raining so hard now, it was difficult to look at anything without having to squint. He sighed. “Alright. Let’s go.”

               Hesitantly, Lance smirked. “I knew you’d see things my way.”

               “Shut up and come on!”

               Once they put back on their socks and shoes (also pretty much soaked), they ran by the castle to let someone know so the team wouldn’t scramble in a panic over any missing paladins. Hunk had stayed behind under an overhang to wait for them alone. He was hunched over, rubbing his arms and shivering when they approached. He frowned at them in disapproval. “What took you guys so long?! I was freezing my berries off waiting for you!”

               “Ew. T.M.I., Hunk,” Lance replied with a click of his tongue.

               “We’re going to the village.” Keith got right to the point. Hunk ceased shivering just enough to shoot them a look of bewilderment. “And whyyy would you do that?”

               The red paladin cast a sidelong glance at their teammate. “Because one of us is a five-year-old.”

               “What?” It wasn’t hard to see Hunk was lost.

               “Nevermind why,” Lance cut in. “Just let Shiro and Allura know where we ran off so they don’t have aneurysms.” Then he was already trotting away and Keith had to run to catch up to him. “Thanks, Hunk!” he called over his shoulder with a wave.

               “You’re going to catch your death out there! H-Hey!”

               Hunk shouted something else but it was hard to catch through the steady thrum of the rain engulfing the pair. It couldn’t have been anything _that_ important because it didn’t look like the yellow pilot was chasing after them or anything.

               It didn’t take long to reach the village. Many of the residents didn’t seem to mind the rain all that much either, as they were still walking up and down the road without a worry or concern. They didn’t look too different from Earthlings, with sleek leathery skin that varied from yellow to brown in color, small sharp noses, large pointed ears, and narrow eyes that so far as Keith had noticed were either orange or green. And despite their noticeably larger stature as a race in general (the village leader, who was female, stood about three heads taller than Allura), Shiro had to stop Lance from hitting on one of the redheaded attendants during their diplomacy meeting. The attendant herself only laughed and said she thought Lance was cute, but she was married.

               The first thing Lance did upon their arrival was skid through one of the larger puddles flooding the main street, tripping over himself at the end a bit. And without stopping, he made a running jump to another smaller puddle. Keith watched him stomp and splash while the inhabitants of Wej went about their lives as though an adult alien space pilot playing in puddles in their village was a normal, everyday occurrence. Keith, on the other hand, could do nothing much outside of stand, stare and feel like his heart was going to burst because of this stupid, idiot man-child.

               The brunet danced from one patch of water to the next, laughing as he did so. He looked utterly ridiculous and he didn’t care.

               Then he slipped and fell like he had stepped on a banana peel. If it were anyone else, the red paladin might’ve cracked up.

               “Lance!” Keith called just before breaking out into a run toward his downed comrade. As he closed the distance between them, the other slowly propped himself up onto his hands and reached for the back of his head. The puddle was deep enough to submerge a good bit of his body where he sat.

               “Are you okay?” the raven asked through the rain. It was still coming down as hard as ever.

               Lance didn’t answer, and eventually Keith realized it was because he was still laughing. It stopped abruptly when he softly hissed, “Ai…” and jerked his own hand away out of reflex. Red flags immediately went off in the other paladin’s head.

               “Let me see,” he said while kneeling down beside him. Lance was already protesting. “I’m fine. Really—¡ai!” He yelped and flinched away when Keith gently poked a dark spot in his hair. It was hard to really see anything, but one thing was clear to the pilot.

               Lance glared up at him. “It’s still tender,” he pouted.

               “Sorry,” Keith apologized blankly. He bent down to look at the wound again. “But you’re not fine; you’re bleeding. We need to get you some medical attention.”

               His friend dismissed him with a wave. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “You worry too much. Like I said, it’s no— _ow_!”

               Keith had promptly poked that same spot a second time to prove his point. Lance covered his new weakness with both hands and leaned away.

               “It’s obviously not “nothing”, idiot.  I’m going to go ask around for someone to patch you up. Stay here,” the former instructed. He stood without leaving room for further argument and jogged to the nearest group of aliens he saw just off the road. Fortunately, for whatever reason he heard Coran mention earlier which Keith instantly forgot, these villagers could speak and understand English, and they pointed him in the direction of a large round cottage at the end of the road.

               “Sato, the village healer, lives there,” they said. Keith nodded, thanked them, and quickly walked back to Lance, who was in the process of getting to his feet. But as soon as he did, he fell back again, and Keith jumped to catch him. Lance’s shoulder fell lightly into the raven’s chest, head lolling back onto Keith’s shoulder a little. The red paladin studied his face out of the corner of his eye; he looked faint.

               “How do you feel?” he asked, voice riddled with concern. The guilt would eat at him if Lance’s injury was more serious than they’d thought. But the brunet defiantly pushed away from him to stand on his own. “I’m fine! Just… Just tired,” he grumbled drowsily.

               “Uhuh,” said Keith, unconvinced. He grabbed Lance by the arm and dragged him off to the cottage. Lance wasn’t in his right mind to resist. When they reached the door, the red pilot didn’t let go of his teammate while he knocked hard enough to hopefully be heard through the heavy pitter patter of the storm.

               Within about thirty ticks, the door creaked open. A young… what did they call themselves again? Keith overheard Lance say “Wejians” earlier while laughing about it before Allura smacked him in the back of the head, stating such a term was incorrect. Coran said it was something weird like… Vakkla? Sure, he’d stick with that. A young Vakkla with snow white hair towered over them over the threshold.

               There was a moment of hesitation before the first thing he said to them was, “You’re adorable.”

               “Excuse me?” While Keith raised an eyebrow, Lance only laughed and replied, “You’re damn right.”

               “Why are you so small?” asked the Vakkla curiously. Before either of them could respond, they heard another voice behind him inside the cottage. Keith faintly caught, “Who is it, Sitka?”

               “No idea, but they’re cute,” Sitka answered over his shoulder. Then he stepped aside to let who Keith thought was maybe his mother look at them. She stood a head shorter than the first, with a head of long, messy, red hair. She looked familiar.

               “Awh, cute they are,” she agreed with a smile. “Lance and… Keith, right?”

               That threw him off, but the brunet’s gasp of recognition made Keith suddenly remember her—she was the attendant Lance had flirted with earlier that day.

               “What kind of host would I be if I left Voltron’s paladins out in this storm to get soaked? Come inside and out of the rain so you can tell me what you need,” she said suddenly, ushering the boys inside the cottage. Although it looked a fairly good size on the outside, the house looked even bigger on the inside. Sitka’s mother(?) led them to her kitchen and gestured to some bar stools that came up to the boys’ chests. They scrambled up with as much dignity as they could maintain while Sitka stood off to Lance’s left and his mom disappeared briefly and reappeared with a couple of towels. When she handed them off to each of them, she noticed the back of Lance’s head.

               “ _Senith’gal_! Are you bleeding?” she asked, though it didn’t seem like she needed an answer. She bent down to inspect it, gently holding Lance’s head straight. “You poor thing! Did this just happen?”

               “Yes,” Keith replied on his teammate’s behalf. “He slipped and fell in the street a few minutes ago.” Lance shot him a look that clearly stated sharing such uncool details was not necessary but the raven deliberately looked the other way. It was at this point that he was sure this Vakkla was Sato.

               The blue paladin fumbled to defend his pride. “It’s nothing, really. It doesn’t even hurt a-anymore.” He stuttered and winced when Sato gently sifted through his hair to get a better look. Keith couldn’t help but smirk at him while Lance glared back.

               Sato muttered something incoherent, and when Sitka answered, Keith realized they were speaking in their native tongue. They exchanged a few words. Sitka smirked and said something while studying the blue paladin that made his mom look at him critically. He added something else shortly after and started laughing at her corresponding expression. Whatever he had said, it caused her to stride over and flick him in the forehead. What followed could be nothing other than some kind of lecture, but Sitka's grin never disappeared, even as he rubbed the sore spot on his forehead. After one more word from Sato, her son nodded and strode down the hall around the corner. Sato turned to the pair once more. “It doesn’t look too bad, but it’s a pretty decent size. I thought your eyes seemed a little glazed over when you arrived, so you might have a minor concussion, but you should be fine. Sitka will patch you right up,” she said, gesturing to her son who’d just reappeared with some medical supplies. With that, the Vakkla faced the front door and said she’d soon return prior to making a swift exit. Keith watched Sitka get to work on Lance quickly. He cleaned the wound, dabbed it with what the red paladin assumed was disinfectant, and was already taking out bandages within a minute or two. But when Lance saw this, he raised his hand to stop him with a shake of his head.

               “It’s fine. I don’t need any bandaging,” he politely declined.

               Sitka watched him for a moment. “Don’t be silly. We need to wrap the wound or it might start bleeding again.”

               Lance smirked at him in confidence. “It’s all good. I heal like nobody’s business. It’ll be completely gone in like a week.”

               “Is that so?” the other raised his brow curiously. Somehow, this was the first time Keith had really looked at his eyes. He’d noticed earlier that Sato’s were a bright, solid green, but Sitka’s were a combination of the two colors Keith had seen for the Vakkla; he left eye was orange, and his right eye was green. Keith focused on them quietly.

               He didn’t like the way they looked at Lance.

               Like a predator would look at prey.

               “Yeah, my regenerative abilities are pretty impressive.” Before he even finished, Sitka reached up and began loosely coiling the bandage around Lance’s head. It fell messily about his face until only part of his mouth and only one eye was visible. When the alien was done, the pilot sat dumbfounded, looking absolutely absurd. Keith would’ve laughed if he hadn’t felt so uncomfortable.

               Sitka grinned, showing off white pointed teeth. “But you wear them so well,” he answered with a tilt of his head.

               After a moment’s hesitation, Lance clapped his hands and raised his signature finger guns at the other, bandages still partially obscuring his face. “You got me there,” he agreed with a click of his tongue. “I can make anything look good.”

               Sitka laughed heartily and Lance joined him. Keith found himself hopping off the stool, body moving faster than his brain. “We should get going, Lance. The others might be waiting for us,” he abruptly declared. He shot an unintentionally icy glance at Sitka when he added, “Thank you for everything.”

               Before Lance could say anything, Sitka asked, “Why the rush all of a sudden? Does the galaxy need saving?”

               The brunet looked like he was going to respond to that too, but Keith beat him to it. “Yes, actually. It does,” came the stiff reply. To his chagrin, the Vakkla turned back to Lance and asked, “What’s it like, piloting a Lion?” Keith’s blood boiled. It was like he hadn’t said anything at all!

               “Unlike anything you can imagine,” the other answered with a dreamy sigh, slowly pulling the cloth strip off his head. “Man… The first time I flew Blue was—“

               “You didn’t even fly it!” Keith interrupted with a scowl. “It was on autopilot!”

               “So?! Didn’t make it any less awesome!” Lance argued.

               The raven turned for the door vehemently. “Whatever. Let’s go.”

               “No need to run away!” Sitka called after him. Of course, Keith’s hotheadedness forced him to spin on his heel and shout defensively, “ _I’m not running_!” The other paladin watched him suspiciously. “What’s up with you all of a sudden? You didn’t seem so keen on leaving two seconds ago.”

               “Nothing,” the raven grunted. He crossed his arms and muttered, “I’m just… starting to realize it might’ve been a bad idea to run off without some way to communicate with the others.”

               Sitka laughed again. “Why’s that? Worried that we’ll devour you?”

               “For all we know, that could be something you’re planning,” Keith answered honestly. Lance looked appalled. “Keith! _Not_ okay!” He looked back at Sitka apologetically. “Please excuse my teammate. He’s paranoid everyone is out to get him.”

               “I am not!”

               “He also thinks a space fleet is going to show up any second now and rain down balls of nuclear vermin.”

               “That was _your dream_!”

               “Call it a premonition.”

               Keith decided he wasn’t having it anymore. “Come _on_ , Lance.”

               To his horror, Sitka laid a hand on Lance’s shoulder and suggested, “What if I came with you guys? I’d love to see your ship. Think the rest of your team would be okay with it?”

               The brunet lit up. “Of course! I don’t see the harm in that. Then everyone’s happy!”

               Keith wanted to strangle him. Why was he so trusting?!

               “Last time you let a stranger into the castle, your Lion got stolen,” he pointed out skeptically. Lance glowered at him in challenge. “Do you have a vendetta against me making friends or something?"

               “I do when they use you to try and deliver the defender of the universe to Zarkon.”

               The brunet gestured to Sitka while staring at Keith like he was crazy. “And with what ship is he going to steal our Lions with?!”

               Keith was hypersensitive to the way Sitka gently squeezed the paladin’s shoulder before sighing, “It’s fine, Lance. Your friend is right. As a guardian of the universe, I’d be hesitant to put my faith in others too.”

               “Ignore him, Sitka. You’re coming with us,” the blue pilot declared defiantly. Sitka could probably see the sparks fly between their angry staring contest.

               “You boys aren’t going anywhere.”

               All three’s eyes snapped up to see Sato had returned. She’d reentered the house so quietly, none of them had noticed. She appeared worried, pressing her ear to the front door for a brief moment. After a few seconds, she stepped away and took a deep breath. She looked at all of them then.

               “A Galra destroyer is hovering over the village. Soldiers are searching for you and your friends.”

               Silence followed this.

               Then Keith noticed Lance shoot him a sour look out of the corner of his eye.

               "I blame you for this.”

               “What?” The red pilot felt his eyebrow twitch. “Because I saw this coming?”

               His friend pressed his fingertips to his temple and squeezed his eyes shut. “Ugh… I hate when you’re right.”

               “Why?”

               “Because every time you’re right, something goes _wrong_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took forever to get through, and it's not anywhere near long enough to make up for the wait. Guess it's what I get for taking five classes and working 30 hours a week, lmao.
> 
> Keith has a rival now, ahahahah. BET YOU ALL THOUGHT IT WAS LANCE. HA.


	7. Leave it to Dad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone was curious as to what Sitka looks like, here is a (really) messy clean up of some sketches I did:  
> http://oi67.tinypic.com/vxjgxl.jpg

               “We need to hide you two,” Sato decided while peeking through her cottage window. But Keith’s Bayard was already activated and at his side. “No. If we’re going to get out of here, we’re going to have to fight our way back to the castle.”

               “Whoa buddy,” Lance interrupted as he hopped off the barstool. “I’m with Sato on this one. We might wanna wait this one out. If it’s a destroyer, they probably have at least a hundred soldiers out in the field looking for us.”

               “And when they burn this place to the ground while we sit idle? What then?” the raven argued. “You can’t expect them to leave peacefully if they can’t find us. They’ll stay and oppress this planet like they’ve done with everything else. There is no “waiting this out”.”

               “Point taken,” his teammate answered rather smoothly with a shrug in defeat. “But I think we can still handle this with a little more tact than… you barging out the door and waving your lightsaber around like a psycho.”

               Keith frowned. “Then what’s _your_ plan?”

               “Simple,” Lance smirked. “We play a little game of hide and seek.”

               “…What?”

               “Oh sorry, did I say hide and seek? I meant hide and _snipe_.” And all of a sudden, Lance’s Bayard was in his hand. He had pulled it out of his jacket so casually, Keith had almost missed it. The brunet turned back to Sato. “You got any high ground we could get to quickly? Like a tower or another tall building? Hell, I’ll take a well-placed tree,” he said.

               She observed him for a tick, then turned to her son. “Sitka, the guard tower you stand watch at is not far. You can take them out the back and sneak past if you hurry.”

               Sitka nodded before addressing the other two. “Follow me.” He stopped briefly by the door to hand them heavy coats that were much too large. “It may be raining, but you two stick out like a pair of laiba in a herd of kokoju. Wear these to hide your faces.” They ignored the weird simile they didn’t understand, took the coats and put them on while tailing Sitka behind the adjacent building. Keith looked up to squint through the rain at the guard tower Sato had referred to. It sat back from the main road a ways behind a two story building that looked like it could be some kind of barracks.

               They had almost made it when Sitka abruptly stopped and Lance and Keith nearly barreled into him. He ushered them back behind the last building they’d passed, keeping a close eye on the group of nearby sentries standing too close for comfort. It was a miracle they hadn’t been noticed, but it was clear that they weren’t going to get passed without some kind of distraction.

               Keith heard Sitka growl under his breath, “This sneaking around is pathetic. If dad were here, this wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.”

               “Why’s that?” Lance whispered from his place between the Vakkla and his teammate. Neither of them missed the wicked leer that split Sitka’s face when he replied, “Because they’d all be dead.”

               Keith and Lance exchanged bemused looks.

               “And where is he now?” asked the former.

               “In the mountains. He’s been gone for three days but he said he’d be back in a week. It’s a shame you won’t be able to meet him.”

               Somehow, the red paladin felt it really wasn’t. Lance’s expression hinted he was in agreement.

               “I have an idea.”

               Both paladin’s looked up in surprise at this claim before Lance answered, “Sweet! What is it?”

               And all of a sudden, Lance wasn’t there anymore. It took a moment for his mind to catch up with his eyes, but Keith realized it was because Sitka had grabbed his teammate without warning, tugged off his hood, then expeditiously tossed him out into the open where he stumbled with a yelp. The blue pilot stared back at the two with eyes wider than Keith had ever seen them, then his panicked gaze snapped over to the right where he must’ve met eyes with the group of sentries just around the corner. Keith heard their shouts of “ _Halt_!” in the distance. He glared at the Vakkla between them while trying to grab the Bayard hidden somewhere within that fortress of a coat. “What are you playing at?” he hissed, but Sitka was quick to shush him.

               Back in the open, the brunet’s hands flew up in surrender. He laughed nervously, “H-Haha, ‘sup my dudes? My bros? My… dude-bros?”

               Keith could hear the group of footsteps marching over at an alarmingly quick pace. He struggled harder with his coat to find his Bayard, but he guessed it didn’t even matter when Sitka lunged from his spot in hiding and knocked the closest sentry’s head clean off with his fist. If the raven had forgotten about Sitka’s (quite) intimidating size somewhere along the way, he was definitely reminded now. Every sentry the guy touched went flying like a rag doll, and the terror was over in seconds. Lance had backed up so he was next to Keith again sometime during the ambush, probably to avoid getting hit by flying bionic men. The red pilot didn’t blame him.

               Sitka glanced back at them over his shoulder. “Are you guys alright?”

               Both nodded.

               “That was both terrifying and oddly satisfying to watch,” Lance declared while replacing his hood. “But y’know, a little warning next time you decide to throw me out like a wet paper towel?”

               Sitka chuckled and said, “Sorry. Had to think fast and you have a face that draws attention.”

               Keith didn’t miss that wink through the rain. Though he couldn’t deny how smug he felt when the comment seemingly flew right over Lance’s head. Or at least, he figured it had, from his teammate’s lack of response. Sitka didn’t appear deterred, unfortunately. He simply smiled and waved them over. “C’mon! The ladder is just behind this building,” he said, pressing on as the pair followed. Just as he said, the ladder was right there. At the foot of it, he turned to the brunet.

               And there it was: his damned hand caressing Lance’s back oh so nonchalantly.

               “Head up and do your thing. I’ll stand guard down here.”

               Keith caught the grin almost completely obscured under his friend’s hood. “Good deal!” he said just before scrambling up the rungs. They were spaced much too amply for someone of human size. He slipped a couple times from stepping on the ends of his coat, and Keith unconsciously prepared himself to catch him in case he fell, but he didn’t. He sighed in relief.

               He heard Sitka laugh lightly again to his right. He’d also been watching.

               “Your friend is incredibly cute.”

               It took all Keith had to keep himself from glowering hard enough to make this guy burst into flames. He knew he didn’t have the right to be as jealous as he felt, and was it even really warranted when he was quite painfully aware of his friend’s lack of interest in men? It’s not like he had the mind to reassure himself while Lance practically _flirted_ _back_. Watching them cozy up to each other so easily was driving him to the edge of insanity!

               The red paladin crossed his arms (as best as he could—was this clothing or a tent?) and deliberately ignored him instead, pretending to keep a lookout.

               Sitka wasn’t discouraged. “Or perhaps he was more than that once upon a time?”

               Keith’s eyes were on him in a split-second. He was completely caught off guard.

               "What?” was all he could manage.

               The Vakkla shrugged. “You two seem like you have a history.”

               Keith scoffed. Despite himself, he could already feel his face drop a few shades. “No, we don’t have a ‘history’,” he answered a little more crossly than he had originally intended.

               Sitka looked legitimately surprised at that. He smiled in a way Keith immediately pinned as devious. “That’s good. I was worried because I thought you might mind my advances.”

               He did. He really, _really_ did.

               Keith half expected Sitka actually turned it _up_ a few notches upon realizing how much it made the raven squirm. Well if this asshole was looking for a fight, Keith was… going to very much consider it. It’s not like he was hesitating because of that earlier demonstration of his alien strength. No, sir. Of course not.

               “Lance is straight,” he curtly declared. He only realized after the words left his mouth how bitter he sounded. Sitka raised an eyebrow at him. “What does that mean?”

               This gave him pause. Right. He’d almost forgotten that that alien strength was because, well, this dude was an _alien_. Ergo he was shockingly _not_ privy to all the societal norms of Earth. “It means…” he started slowly. He took a moment to figure out how to word it so it was absolutely clear.

               “It means he’s not going to find someone like you attractive.” Well. His answer wasn’t… _wrong_. Or at least, he _hoped_ it wasn’t.

               Strangely enough, the other eventually nodded like he understood. “You mean his interest is restricted to inhabitants of your home planet.”

               …Sure, why not.

               Keith didn’t give him an answer, but he watched a pout that had him _fuming_ because even though he might not reflect on it too often, Keith knew what attractive was, and this jerk was that in spades. It was unfair, honestly. He wasn’t even human! He briefly wondered how big of an intergalactic incident it would be if he ‘accidentally’ murdered him. Would it hurt those diplomatic relations Allura just established earlier that day? Mmm, it was an option, if anything.

               “Wait, that can’t be right.” Sitka’s murmur snapped Keith from his daydream. Blue-gray eyes flicked over to see him furrowing his brow in thought. “It was the blue paladin that flirted with mom earlier today. That was him, wasn’t it?” he recalled with a laugh.

               Shit. So she had told him about that.

               Keith opened his mouth before he saw hope restored in the Vakkla’s eyes. “Look—“

               “Keith!”

               Both boys directed their gazes up to see Lance peering down at them. He made a vague gesture that the red pilot guessed meant he should join him. With one last glance at Sitka, who only grinned and shrugged, Keith rushed up. Once he reached the top, he found Lance back at the perimeter, seeking targets with his rifle. He’d removed his coat and dropped it off to the side in a wet heap. His jacket also lied strewn nearby, leaving Lance in a soaked gray T-shirt and Keith with a string of curse words running through his all too active brain. He approached slowly, trying not to stare at the thin wet fabric clinging to his teammate’s frame.

               Keith felt the dryness in his mouth when he asked, “Aren’t you cold?”

               “Freezing,” came the instant response. “But it’d be even worse if I left all that on. Just so you know, we’re both going to have the worst colds ever, so we better leave before we accidentally kill off the indigenous population with foreign illness.”

               The red paladin grimaced irritably. “And whose fault would that be if that happened?”

               “Hey, I’m not the guy who let the other guy catch his death in the rain. Hell, he even joined him, therefore catching his own death and earning half the blame.”

               “In what world is that argument valid?”

               “He had the power, Keith. He could’ve put his foot down. He could’ve drawn a line.”

               "Why are you speaking in third person?”

               “He could’ve said ‘No’. Now look at the mess they’re in.”

               “Did you actually need something? Or is this just to satisfy one of your weird urges to pick a fight with me?” Keith interrupted when his impatience got the better of him, but there was a smile threatening to crack his stoic expression.

               “Oh, yes!” Lance shot one more from his rifle, the fourth since Keith had joined him, and turned around. “But also, yes,” he added with a smirk. Keith rolled his eyes.

               “So anyway, I just realized… This would make so much more sense if you made your way back to the castle while I escorted you out of the village.”

               He took a moment to process this new and obviously better solution.

               “…You’re right.”

               Granted, even with this revelation, Keith wasn’t too keen on leaving Lance alone with that behemoth just below them. He took a minute to see if he could come up with some alternative, but could think of nothing better, nor could he think of a good enough argument to convince Lance to revise his strategy. He couldn’t help the resulting sigh.

               “What? You got an issue?”

               Keith met the other’s gaze again, momentarily startled. “Uh.”

               Lance’s eyes narrowed. “Got a problem? A qualm? A worry? A doubt?”

               The other blinked. “Is this the part where I say ‘Voltron’?”

               “Because I can t—…” The brunet stopped dead midsentence. “…Don’t make me slap you, as much as it would please me to do so.”

               “I don’t have a problem. I’m just thinking,” Keith lied.

               “Well, I don’t appreciate your reservations when it comes to my brilliant strategic thinking. So you best buck up, get your butt down there and go get Space Dad,” the other ordered, free hand raised to point at the ladder behind the other paladin, who sighed a second time. He turned to leave, making sure his scowl was hidden under his coat hood.

               “And you better come back for me!” Lance called after him. “Promise me, Keith!”

               Said boy hesitated, surprised that the brunet would even think otherwise. “Uh yeah. I’ll come back for yo—“

               “PROMISE ME.”

               “Alright, I promise!” Keith found himself raising his hands in surrender, put off by Lance’s sudden urgency.

               “Then we’re good,” the blue pilot hummed cheerfully. The raven raised his eyebrows, bemused. “Why would I not come back for you?”

               Lance had already faced away from him, seeking another target with his Bayard. Keith watched him shrug. “I dunno. I’d be considering it if I were you.”

               Jack-ass.

               Keith descended the ladder quickly. Sitka hadn’t moved from his post since he’d left. “What was up?” he asked when the raven’s boots hit the ground.

               “I’m leaving to get the other paladins.”

               Before Sitka could say anything else, Keith pinned him with a hard gaze. “But if it wasn’t already clear how much I don’t trust you, let me make it crystal. If you let anything happen to him—if you _do_ anything to him—“

               “You’d mind?”

               They studied each other.  As much as Keith hated the smug grin that currently hung on the Vakkla’s face, for once it was nice to know someone actually _understood_.

               He took a deep breath. “Yes. I’d mind.”

               Sitka nodded, seemingly satisfied. He tilted his head toward the main road. “I’d hurry back then,” he suggested while waggling his eyebrows impishly. Keith only narrowed his eyes in warning, but before he could take more than two steps away, they both heard Lance above them a second time.

               “Yo, guys!” He rapidly descended the ladder, and once he hit the soil with a dull splash, he turned to the pair looking winded.

               “Lance, what’s wrong?” asked Keith.

               “So like… I was doing my sniper thing, right? I was getting in the zone. Must’ve downed like twelve dudes after you left, Keith. And I was about to get another when like… he fell on his own? And I thought “Sure. Why question it?” before picking someone else. But just before I shot, I swear I saw this gigantic shadow come out of nowhere and all of a sudden, he was gone! And that’s not even the worst part!” Lance paused only to grab Keith by the shoulders in his panic. “There were bodies, Keith! Bodies flying everywhere! Someone or some _thing_ is massacring all the Galra! Or the sentries! It’s hard to tell from this distance.”

               “What?!” Keith had no idea how to respond.

               “That’s what I’m saying!”

               They stared at each other, and after a couple seconds, they turned to look at Sitka.

               Who was now gone.

               “…Sitka?” Lance’s hands slowly fell away as the two of them surveyed their surroundings as best as they could. It seemed like the rain was finally beginning to let up. Their third party was nowhere in sight. Keith hissed under his breath. “I knew he couldn’t be trusted…” When he looked back at Lance, he found he was gone too.

               “L—!” he whipped around to catch his teammate making a beeline for the main road. “Lance!” He sprinted to catch up, throwing off his coat so he could move better. “Sitka!” he heard the other yell (like an idiot). Was he crazy?! Despite Lance’s freakishly long legs, Keith was still the faster runner, and he caught up to him fairly quickly. He reached out for the blue paladin’s shoulder, fingers just barely grazing the fabric of Lance’s T-shirt—

               —when something large fell from the sky and hit the ground hard enough to break it, effectively cutting the pair off. Both dug their heels into the terrain to stop themselves from careening into it. Whatever it was, it slowly rose to the peak of its height, and Keith wasn’t sure if it was the mists of the rain or the dysfunction in his brain, but for whichever reason, he failed to process just what it was. Then he saw it raise one of its limbs and it didn’t matter anymore because his instincts took over. His hand shot out and grabbed his teammate, jerking him behind him as he brought out his sword. He barely saw the thing crack down like a whip, and then there was a searing pain in his arm just from the sheer impact of it colliding with his Bayard. He stumbled back into Lance, who brought his arms around to catch him, but he also felt his heel fall onto the toe of the brunet’s shoe. Before he knew it, they had fallen on their asses.

               When Keith looked back up, it was already getting ready for another strike.

               “Ravi!”

               “Kaiza, _shke’n_!”

               It froze.

               Two pairs of wide, terrified eyes shifted to see Sitka and Sato run in from the direction of the main road. They could only look on completely baffled when Sato calmly approach the monster like it _hadn’t_ almost mauled two of the defenders of the universe. It was only then that Keith finally realized that the monster in question was just another, _horrifically_ large Vakkla. Even as she softly spoke to him in her native tongue, Keith could feel his heart savagely bully his lungs, making it difficult to breathe. If it weren’t for Lance’s equally sporadic heartbeat pulsing against his shoulder blades, Keith would’ve forgotten that the only thing holding him up was Lance’s chest on his back. Better yet, the brunet’s arms were still wrapped around him and _holding his rifle_. He must’ve summoned it at the last second, ready to shoot just before Sato and Sitka had intervened.

               Speaking of, Sitka moved to crouch before them while Sato and their almost-murderer continued to converse as though they were talking about the god damn weather. “Are you two alright?”

               With words entirely lost to them, Lance and Keith only silently nodded. They neutralized their Bayards in unison. Sitka sighed in relief. “Lucky we made it in time…”

               “We’re alive…” Lance breathed out. Keith flinched as hot air ghosted over his ear, only made worse when the brunet started laughing. “We’re alive, Keith!” he cheered excitedly. The red pilot suspected his soul temporarily left his body when his friend shamelessly embraced him from behind. “Keith, we’re alive!” It wasn’t bone crushing or anything, but Lance’s cold, wet cheek pressed firmly against his own burned on contact. Judging by the rigidness of his body, he suspected he’d skipped to the final stages of rigor mortis since most assuredly he was already dead.

               “I could kiss you!”

               Yep. That confirmed it. He was gone.

               “Oh man…” Lance’s arms slipped away and Keith listened to him fall back into the wet grass and mud with a squelch. He was still laughing. “I thought we were goners for sure,” he murmured quietly. The raven tried to ignore the way he was still currently seated between Lance’s legs. He wasn’t sure if he should feel thankful or tormented by his teammate’s complete indifference.

               “I’m so sorry, guys. I should’ve said something before I ran off, but I had to be sure that—“

               “Who are your toys, Sitka?” The voice that interrupted was deep and smooth, and yet could really only be described as a growl. Keith watched Sato lightly smack the stranger’s arm in disapproval. He smirked at her, then rephrased, “Who are your friends, Sitka?”

               Sitka stood, gesturing to the two on the ground. “This is Lance and Keith, two Paladins of Voltron,” he answered. He turned back to them and mirrored the same gesture toward the newcomer. “Lance… Keith… This is Kaiza,” he introduced slowly. “My dad.”

               “What!?” Lance had shot back up so quick, his sternum felt like a club on Keith’s spine. Honestly, the red paladin could say he had seen that coming when he saw how Sato and he had acted with each other. Not that he had anything to compare it to. This revelation also did little to make their newest company any less terrifying.

               “I thought you said your dad was still in the mountains?” the blue pilot queried dubiously. Kaiza was the one to reply, “I was, until I saw something touch down near the coast this morning. I started making my way back to see what it was and saw another one descend over the village, though that one started heading somewhere else by the time I got here.”

               Keith glanced up to see that, just as he claimed, the Galra destroyer was no longer above them.

               “Sorry about earlier. I can’t remember how the Galra look without their helmets, and you two are about their size. Maybe a little smaller. It’s hard to tell the difference really,” he tacked on nonchalantly. Keith wondered if he could even call it an apology.

               His attention was stolen however, when he began to hear a faint call in the distance. Fortunately, the rain had almost entirely let up at this point, so when the voice called again, he and Lance very clearly heard their names.

               They stood. “Is that…?” Lance started.

               “Lance!”

               The brunet bucked up excitedly. “Hunk!”

               “Keith!”

               The red pilot raised an eyebrow when he called back, “Pidge?!”

               “I think they’re over here!” they heard Hunk shout. Lance and Keith passed the other three and moved into the clearing. Hunk and Pidge, fully suited with Bayards in their hands, were already rushing to greet them.

               “What were you _doing_ out here?!” Pidge was the first to ask this extremely valid question.

               “You look like drowned rats,” Hunk observed. Lance frowned at him. “Thanks, Hunk.”

               “I tried to tell you guys to bring a communicator or something, but you probably didn’t hear me over the rain,” he added.

               “And you guys really should’ve. Looks like you got even more here,” said Pidge with a brief glance at the fallen sentries around them. She expounded, “The Galra advanced on the castle too, because once they caught wind of our location, the destroyer came by. The fight wasn’t too difficult, but Allura’s pretty ticked that you guys disappeared without telling anyone.”

               “We _did_ tell someone! We told Hunk!” Lance instantly defended. He gave said friend a pointed look, who held his hands up defensively. “Don’t get mad at me! I told them where you were.”

               “Then why is she mad? She said we had the rest of the day to ourselves!” he argued further. Pidge only shook her head. “I don’t know, man. This is between you two and her.”

               “So the castle’s okay?” Keith asked, relieved to see them both nod. “The fight was pretty easy, even with only three Lions. The castle defense system nearly took out the destroyer on its own,” said Hunk. “Luckily, it fell into the o—oh my cheeseballs…” He stuttered midsentence, gaze abruptly drawn to something behind the other two. Keith and Lance turned to see Sitka and his parents had finally joined the four of them. Hunk’s gasp of fear had no doubt been at the sight of his father, who Keith guessed stood an easy ten feet tall, maybe more.

               Kaiza grinned, practically crushing them with his intimidation. “More Voltrons of paladin?” he asked.

               “Paladins of Voltron,” Sato corrected.

               “Sure,” he shrugged in disinterest. The resemblance between father and son was uncanny, Keith noticed.

               “This is Hunk,” Lance gently patted his friend’s face while he cowered behind the blue pilot, then he gestured to Keith. “The one hiding behind Keith is Pidge.” The raven peered over his shoulder to see that the green paladin had somehow zipped behind him in that small amount of time. She had leaned out and waved nervously during her introduction.

               “So is it a requirement as a paladin to be adorable or is that just coincidence in this case?” Sitka inquired as his gaze shifted between the four of them. Lance was the one to nod in response. “Of course. Gotta be adorable to protect the galaxy. Also doesn’t hurt during matters of diplomacy.”

               “A true statement,” Sato chuckled.

               “I guess you guys are heading back then?” Sitka sounded a bit sad and Keith kicked himself for feeling bad.

               “Can’t refuse a princess’s summons unfortunately,” sighed Lance dejectedly. He moved to shake Sitka’s hand, only to be pulled into a hug, which Lance easily returned. When he stepped away, he handed Lance his jacket. “I noticed you left this in the tower. You probably don’t want to leave without it.”

               “Oh, thanks!”

               Sitka then strode over to Keith, who was already backing up.

               “I don’t hug strangers.”

               “Don’t hurt my feelings, Keith. We’re not strangers,” Sitka countered easily. There was no outrunning someone his size, so soon enough, he’d swept the poor boy up into his arms and Keith had to live with the embarrassment of his team members getting to watch his legs dangle uselessly. His face probably looked like he had just sucked on a lemon.

               After five agonizingly long seconds, the Vakkla put him down.

               “I’m going to miss you guys,” he said. Lance was already sniffling. “I’m gonna miss you too, buddy.”

               They waved goodbye to Sato and Kaiza and with one last tearful exchange between Lance and Sitka, the four of them headed back to the castle. Sure enough, Allura interrogated them as soon as they stepped over the threshold while Hunk and Pidge vanished to lord knows where. Shiro and Coran joined in shortly after and it was like Good Cop, Bad Cop plus an overly dramatic third cop that flip-flopped his opinion. Surprisingly, Lance’s defense of ‘You said we could do anything for the rest of this planet’s daylight!’ worked rather well to quell the Princess’s initial anger. And luckier yet, when Keith mentioned the appearance of Kaiza and described how they almost died, what was left of that rage easily transformed into worry.

               “And you two are alright?” She circled the boys, looking the both of them over. Keith guessed this was what a doting mother would be like. She didn’t miss how he flinched when her fingers lightly brushed his shoulder. “Keith, your arm—?”

               “I’m fine,” he assured her. “It’s—“

               He bit his tongue when something poked his shoulder, _hard_. He glared at the culprit—Lance, of course, who only smirked in return. “Not nothing,” he finished for him. The raven wanted to wipe that smug look off his adorable face.

               So he poked him equally as hard in the back of the head.

               “Ow!” the blue paladin yelped, hands flying up to protect his not-yet-healed wound. “Keith, how could you?” He looked utterly betrayed.

               “Uhp! Looks like Number 3’s got a minor head injury, possibly a concussion too,” Coran reported, having been standing behind Lance this whole time. He had pushed away the paladin’s hands and his hair to get a better look. Instead of being annoyed from the discovery, the brunet looked impressed at his deductions. “Wow, Coran. You’re good.”

               The Altean looked rather pleased at the compliment. “I’ve seen my fair share of noggin trauma.”

               Shiro stepped in to give it a look too. “What happened to you, Lance? Was this from the fight with Kaiza? Or the Galra?”

               “Yeah, it was! You should’ve seen it, Shiro. After Keith got blown away, Kaiza went straight for me. We were cornered! And you know I have lightning fast reflexes, but his were even faster, so I—hey!” his explanation came to a stuttering halt when he noticed Shiro, Allura and Coran shift their gazes to Keith instead for answers. He couldn’t help but smile when he explained, “He slipped and fell while he was playing in puddles earlier.”

               It was quiet for a moment. Eventually, Shiro’s resounding sigh cut the silence like a gigantic disappointed knife. “Lance…” He brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

               The brunet grinned sheepishly. “Worth it.”

               “This was the first time I’ve seen rain myself! It didn’t look dangerous, but I remained inside the castle. Good thing I did! I didn’t know it caused injuries like this,” Coran mused with interest. Allura frowned. “I don’t think that’s normally the case, Coran.”

               To Keith’s surprise, Lance turned back to him with an expression of genuine concern. “How _is_ your arm, by the way? I’m honestly surprised it didn’t break or something.” He didn’t wait for an answer when he ordered him to take off his jacket.

               “Excuse me?”

               The brunet ignored him, looking to the couple of Alteans beside him, “Would you guys mind if we got some towels? I feel like now that the interrogation is out of the way, Keith and I can start drying off before we get hypothermia.”

               “Oh, yes! Coran, if you would? I need to get the ship ready to leave in the next hour,” Allura excused herself with a quick wave to the rest.

               “Right! Right! You are quite soaked.” Coran disappeared so quickly, Keith almost missed it. He was, however, very keen to the blue paladin when he turned back to face him again. “You heard me, mullet. Jacket off.”

               The raven glanced at Shiro for help, but their leader only smiled and shrugged. Apparently, he had hesitated just enough for Lance to assume he was refusing. In Keith’s defense, it was like, a second.

               “Don’t make me undress you.”

               “What?!” He wouldn’t.

               With a completely straight face, the brunet reached for his collar.

               He would.

               “Alright! I got it!” Keith snapped hurriedly while swatting Lance’s hands away. He hoped he didn’t look as red as he felt when he began removing the dripping article of clothing. He dropped it off next to where Lance had thrown his own jacket when they met the other three inside the castle. He turned back around only to find Shiro and Lance were now dangerously close. He felt his hair raise, but to his dignity, didn’t shout in alarm.

               Shiro squinted at his arm, stroking his chin in thought. “It doesn’t _look_ like anything’s out of place.”

               Without warning, Lance gently rolled up Keith’s T-shirt sleeve and prodded his bicep. “Does that hurt?”

               At that point in time, Keith couldn’t tell. He willed his brain to function. The poor boy was still calming himself down from when Lance cradled him in his arms earlier. He didn’t need this right now—Lance (and Shiro) doting on him.

               “I’m fine! Shouldn’t we be worrying about you and your concussion?” the red pilot attempted to shift the attention from himself just so he had a moment to think a little more clearly. But Lance only scowled.

               He jabbed Keith in the shoulder again.

               “Ow!” He wasn’t able to hold it in the yelp of pain this time. He gaped at Lance incredulously, who only glared back.

               “Clearly!” the other said sarcastically.

               Without thinking, Keith snaked his arm around and landed an equally hard jab to the back of Lance’s head.

               “Ow!”

               The resulting slap-fight was inevitable.

               “Alright! Stop! Stop! Guys!” Shiro wrenched them apart after grabbing a fistful of their shirts in each of his hands. He held them as far away from each other as his arm-span allowed, looking from one to the other in disapproval. Both Lance and Keith reluctantly avoided his gaze.

               “I swear, it’s like I’m at daycare with you two sometimes.”

               Keith heard Lance huff. “He started it…”

               The raven whipped back around, shouting vehemently, “Say what?!” That was a _god damn lie_.

               “Knock it off!”

               All of a sudden there was a pain in the back of Keith’s head, and he realized it was because Shiro had just bopped the both of them. He stumbled a bit, clutching his freshly injured skull with both hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance fall to his knees and cradle his noggin with a tear in his eye. “I have a concussion…” he whined. The black paladin looked genuinely sorry at this realization. “Oh, right. Sorry, Lance.”

               “Don’t apologize to him, Shiro. He’ll just get mad and pick a fight,” the red pilot grumbled irritably. “He’s completely insane.”

               The last thing Keith remembered was Lance lunging at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been 15 long years (days). But we're getting closer and closer to the other 18,835 words I've already written for this fic, lmao.
> 
> Who wants a sick!Klance chapter? I'm considering it, but I'm not sure yet.
> 
> It's hard to write when you have to write other narratives for college. ):


End file.
